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Introduction to solid and structural mechanics: analysis of statically determinate structures; stress and strain; behaviour of beams and columns; analysis of deformations; torsion.
This course introduces emerging civil and natural resources engineers to the concepts of solid mechanics. The aim is to provide the fundamentals for the analysis of problems involving statically determinate bodies and loadings. The course develops the concepts and analysis of engineering stress and strain, pressure vessels, torsion, simple constitutive and failure theories, and bending.
At the conclusion of this course you should be able to:1. Calculate and plot internal forces and moments: axial forces, shear forces, bending moments, and torques; (Washington Accord WA1) (UC EIE3)2. Define and compute engineering stresses and strains in solid bodies for different loadings and combinations of loadings (Washington Accord WA1) (UC EIE3)3. Qualitatively describe the deformation of solid bodies under various loadings (Washington Accord WA1 (UC EIE3).4. Use Mohr's circle to determine stress and strain transformations, principal components and maximum shear components (Washington Accord WA1) (UC EIE3)5. Explain and apply simple constitutive and failure theories (Washington Accord WA1) (UC EIE3)6. Apply the integration and moment area methods to calculate deflections of statically determinant beams (Washington Accord WA1) (UC EIE3)7. Explain the assumptions and limitations inherent in analytical techniques for solid body mechanics (Washington Accord WA1) (UC EIE3).8. Analyse and interpret experimental data and use experimental data to explore and communicate how the assumptions and techniques of solid mechanics apply in the context of non-idealised conditions (Washington Accord WA1, WA2, WA4, WA10) (UC EIE2, EIE3, EIE4).
Subject to approval of the Dean of Engineering and Forestry
ENCI230, ENCI234
Students must attend one activity from each section.
Anthony Abu
Allan Scott
•Quizzes are held on LEARN each week, and will cover material up to that point in the course with a focus on the specific material in lectures from the previous or current week. Quizzes cannot be made up if missed for any reason. The final quiz grade will comprise the top 9/11 quiz marks to allow students to miss up to two quizzes without any effect on their course grade. Quizzes will come available each Monday and will be due as posted on LEARN. Quizzes are designed to assess mastery of key concepts and should not take more than 1 hour to complete.•Homework problems are posted for each week on LEARN. These problems are not assessed, they are for your own practice and self-study. Numerical answers will be made available, and worked solutions will be posted at the end of the weekly quiz period.•You are permitted to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) for the Lab Assignment, solely for the purpose of correcting grammatical errors and typos. No other use of generative AI is permitted. To assist with maintaining academic integrity, you must appropriately acknowledge any use of generative AI in your work. Please include a statement of acknowledgement/AI declarationSpecial ConsiderationsAny student who has been impaired by significant exceptional and/or unforeseeable circumstances that have prevented them from completing any major assessment items, or that have impaired their performance such that the results are not representative of their true level of mastery of the course material, may apply for special consideration through the formal university process. The applicability and academic remedy/action associated with the special consideration process is listed for each assessment item below. Please refer to the University Special Consideration Regulations and Special Consideration Policies and Procedures documents for more information on the acceptable grounds for special consideration and the application process.Assessment ItemAcademic RemedyQuizzesSpecial consideration is not applicable as the individual quizzes are worth < 10% of the course grade. No alternative arrangements will be offered for any quizzes that are missed regardless of the circumstances. See Section 7 for more information.Midterm TestStudents will be offered an equivalent alternative test. The alternative test will be held the first week of May 2025. The mark on this alternative test will replace the original test mark in the course grade calculation unless a student declines or does not respond to the offer of the alternative exam, in which case the original mark will be used. Students will not be advised of their original mark as part of this process.Lab AssignmentAn extension will be granted for evidence-supported requests. The duration will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Students seeking an extension must contact the course coordinator as soon as possible with evidence of their situation. Requests that come after the due date will only be considered in exceptional circumstances.Final ExamStudents will be offered an equivalent alternative exam. The alternative exam will be held in the week of 7-11 July 2025. The mark on the alternative exam will replace the original exam mark in the course grade calculation unless a student declines or does not respond to the offer of the alternative exam, in which case the original mark will be used. Students will not be advised of their original mark as part of this process.Note: All communication associated with special considerations will be conducted using official UC email accounts. The offer to sit an alternative assessment will come with a set date/time. Students will have a clearly specified amount of time to respond to the offer. Failure to respond in the specified time frame will be interpreted as a declined offer. Students will not be informed of their original assessment marks as part of this process. If a student has applied for special consideration but the application has not yet been approved, they may be permitted to sit the alternative test/exam, but the mark will not be applied until the special consideration application has been approved.
Beer, Johnston, Dewolf and Mazurek; Mechanics of Materials ; 7th; McGraw Hill, 2014.
Generative AI use in this course It is not practical to regulate the use of Generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT) for internal assessments on this course – weekly homework and quiz assignments. Students are allowed to use these tools in whichever manner they see fit. However, you should be aware of the risks, which are described below.Research clearly shows that the unrestricted use of ChatGPT by students during mathematical education leads to decreased performance on external assessment (which happens to comprise most of your grade in this course). For instance, this study showed a 17% reduction in test performance, more than three grade points.The primary mechanisms leading to adverse outcomes appear to be (1) shallow learning, where AI prevents you spending sufficient time with the material to obtain a deep understanding of it, and (2) AI dependency, where overuse of the tool leads to an inability to apply methods or think critically once it is taken away.If you intend to use Generative AI on this course, consider prompting with some basic guardrails to prevent the above impacts on your learning:“You are a math tutor helping me with a homework problem. Please suggest one (and only one) next step for me to consider on the following problem. Don’t complete the problem for me. **paste your problem**.”“You are a coding tutor helping me with a homework problem. Here is some code I have written and the error that I am getting. Please give me some hints about how I can fix this. Do not give me the corrected code though. **paste your code and error message**.”Even with the guardrails, a helpful Generative AI will frequently just give you the solution to a problem, cheating you of the opportunity to learn it yourself.
Lab assignments must be submitted to the applicable assignment drop box on LEARN by 5.00 pm, three weeks after the allocated laboratory section. Late submissions will incur a 20% penalty per day late. Further instructions for the lab assignment are available on LEARN and on the provided lab assignment sheet.
Domestic fee $1,122.00
International fee $6,238.00
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Civil and Natural Resources Engineering .