ENME486-25S1 (C) Semester One 2025

Aerospace Structures

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 17 February 2025
End Date: Sunday, 22 June 2025
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 2 March 2025
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 11 May 2025

Description

This course develops engineering analysis skills with a focus on methods relevant to aerospace structures. This includes stress, strain, deflection, and stability analysis. It also includes understanding the loads experienced by aircraft and spacecraft. Major topics include thin and rib-stiffened structures, lightweight materials, energy methods, application of the finite element method, and airframe loads.

Learning Outcomes

  • Washington Accord (V4) Summary of Graduate Attributes attained in this course:
     WA1 – Engineering Knowledge
     WA2 – Problem Analysis
     WA4 – Investigation
     WA5 – Tool Usage
     WA9 – Communication

  • Course topics with Learning Outcomes (and Washington Accord (WA) and UC Graduate Attributes) identified.

    1. Vectors and Matrices, Stress (shear and normal), Stress Transformation and Principal Stresses, Strain and Strain Displacement Relations, Stress-Strain Relations and Thermal Strain
    2. Equilibrium at a Point and Field Equations, Design and Strength Theories, Strain Energy and Complementary energy (Theorems)
    3. Beams – Compound and Asymmetric, Rayleigh-Ritz Method and Total Potential Energy
    4. Torsion of Thin-Wall Closed Sections, Bending in Plates, Bending / Twisting in Plates, Plate Boundary Conditions
    5. Stability and Euler Column Buckling, Buckling of Thin Plates
    6. Aerospace Materials, Introduction to Composite Materials, Introduction to Composite Structures Analysis, Composite Laminate Theory
    7. Aircraft Structures and Loads
    8. Transverse Shear in Thin-walled Beams
    9. Overarching course objectives (WA1, WA2, WA4, WA5, WA10) (EIE2)
            9.1. Discuss fundamental energy principles related to structural analysis such as the  principle of total potential energy and the principle of virtual work
            9.2. Discuss the fundamentals of instability analysis as it applies to thin plate-like structures
            9.3. Discuss the common materials used in aircraft and spacecraft structural components
            9.4. Estimate typical airframe loads and discuss the concept of airworthiness
            9.5. Perform deflection and stress analysis of thin-walled beams
            9.6. Discuss the role of the finite element method for the analysis of aerospace structures

Prerequisites

Timetable 2025

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Lecture A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 15:00 - 17:00 Jack Erskine 239
17 Feb - 6 Apr
28 Apr - 1 Jun
Lecture B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 11:00 - 13:00 Jack Erskine 242
24 Feb - 2 Mar
10 Mar - 16 Mar
24 Mar - 30 Mar
28 Apr - 4 May
12 May - 18 May
26 May - 1 Jun
Computer Lab A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 11:00 - 13:00 Civil - Mech E201 Mech Computer Lab
17 Feb - 23 Feb
3 Mar - 9 Mar
17 Mar - 23 Mar
31 Mar - 6 Apr
5 May - 11 May
19 May - 25 May

Course Coordinator

Stephen Daynes

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,268.00

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 Mechanical Engineering .

All ENME486 Occurrences

  • ENME486-25S1 (C) Semester One 2025