Materials Selection Assignment

The rational and optimal selection of materials underpins all engineering endeavors. In individual tutorials and class exams, you will practice various aspects of the materials selection process ranging from defining a component function statement; translating these functional requirements into material properties; identification of constraints; analyzing of the relative importance of constraints; conducting coarse screening using constraints (or limits); derivation of one or more material indices; short-listing materials using 2-d charts and selection lines etc; ranking short-listed materials using other methods including multi-objective analysis, a consideration of the influence of shape and more detailed investigation of individual materials and their properties.

In this assignment, you will integrate all of these steps to conduct a complete and thorough selection of material for an application in fact, the above list was used to create the assignment template at the back of this document which should be used to create your assignment. Some of the tutorial exercises will be directly relevant to your assignment (so you should save them) and others indirectly (i.e. the method will be valuable but the specific example will be different). The assignment is due on 5th August 2022. The assignment is worth 20% of your overall mark for the Course. Please submit it to me by hardcopy during class on the due date. You are not allowed to drop into the assignment box. You are strongly advised to work steadily on the assignment each week as topics are covered in the lectures and tutorials. It won't be possible to complete it satisfactorily in the last few days.

• This is an individual assignment i.e. the submitted work is to be the work of an individual student.
• The reference to lab groups is only a convenient way to allocate components to individual students.
• You are required to submit a Turnitin similarity report with a hard copy of the assignment.

The systems under study will all be watercraft of 4 different types and for convenience; one will be assigned to each laboratory group. Each student in each laboratory group will have a different component(s) to analyze and select materials for. As such, no two students will have exactly the same assignment to complete. Note also that even if you are studying the same type of component, the objectives will be different for each type of watercraft, and as such, the solution path will be different. Component allocations are given on page 2.

If the component box has options just choose one of them; if it has several components listed start with just one; if the component seems too easy or limited in scope, then you may choose an additional component but be aware that things get complicated later on!

In order to complete your initial assessment of load type and probable failure modes as well as the detail stage of the assignment, you should use library holdings, the interlibrary loan service, journal and journal databases, etc. Assignments that only use random internet web pages for information will typically not score well.

Are you thinking so what do I do now?

My suggestion is: START NOW!

1. Go to the Table on page 3 and see which group member' you are and look up which component is yours in the table above
2. Get hold of some reading and analyze the load situations. You don't usually need numbers at this stage, just probable failure types (e.g. tensile overload, bending failure, buckling, fatigue, creep, etc.).
3. Note any assumptions at the beginning
4. Using the assignment template as a guide, start working!
5. Don't be overly influenced by watercraft you have owned or seen and the materials they are made from. Be objective and wait until you have finished your own analysis. If that highlights mistakes in your constraints or objectives, give an honest assessment of that, and don't try to bluff your way through. Re-do some analyses after that if necessary.