Mechanics of Materials

Assignment 1
Summer semester 2021

Notes:
The assignment must be solved by you alone – any cheating will be rigidly prosecuted and leads to zero points!

Hand in your solution hand written to the TA’s by Tuesday, May 11th, 2021; 12:00h. Solutions handed in late will not be
accepted.

Problem 1:

Figure 1 shows a PV-module and its supports. The module is held in its position by two pillars A-B – see also the sketch in
figure 2. The pillars A-B need to be dimensioned for this arrangement. The module is loaded by the distributed load in
figure 3 is given by 𝑞𝐴 = 3,35𝑘𝑁/𝑚.

Figure 1: PV-module with support.

Figure 2: Sketch of PV-module with load
(a) Calculate the force in the pillars A-B!
(b) For an aluminum alloy (𝐸 = 70′ 000𝑁/𝑚𝑚2 ) determine the required axial moment of inertia 𝐼𝑟𝑒𝑞 for the failure
mode of buckling. Use the safety factor against buckling 𝑆𝐵 = 3. (If you could not solve part (a), use 𝐹 = 700𝑁,
which is not the correct answer to (a)).
(c) How does the required axial moment of inertia 𝐼𝑟𝑒𝑞 change if instead of 𝑆𝐵 the partial safety factors on the load
side 𝛾𝐿 = 2 and on the resistance side 𝛾𝑅 = 1,2 are used. Recalculate 𝐼𝑟𝑒𝑞 !

Problem 2: B C D A
The cylindrical shaft in Fig. 3 is fully fixed at A and is
statically loaded by the pair of forces 𝐹. It is made of
the tempered steel 42CrMo4.

Material data: 𝑅𝑝0,2 = 1140𝑀𝑃𝑎 and

Geometry data: 𝑑 = 25𝑚𝑚; 𝑑𝑖 = 15𝑚𝑚; 𝑑𝑎 = 40𝑚𝑚 and 𝑐 = 80𝑚𝑚

Load: 𝐹 = 21𝑘𝑁

(a) Determine the maximum torsion stress 𝜏𝑡,𝑚𝑎𝑥 in the sections B, C and D respectively!
(b) Calculate the safety against yielding 𝑆𝑡,𝑦 for the sections B,C and D and state if they are sufficient or not

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Mechanics of Materials
Assignment 1
Summer semester 2021

Problem 3:

Figure 4 shows a biaxially loaded plate element, which is stressed by

𝜎𝑥 = 200 𝑁/𝑚𝑚2; 𝜎𝑦 = 100 𝑁/𝑚𝑚2 and 𝜏𝑥𝑦 = 75 𝑁/𝑚𝑚2 .

(a) Compute the principal stresses 𝜎1 and 𝜎2 as well as the angle

𝜑 by which the element must be turned in order to receive
the principal stress planes!
(b) Consider the plate element turned by 𝜑 = 30° (see Fig 4,
dark grey element)! Determine the stresses 𝜎𝑥′; 𝜎𝑦′ and
𝜏𝑥′𝑦′ !

HINT: It helps to verify your solution, if you draw Mohr’s stress circle
to scale!
Figure 4: Biaxially loaded plate element

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