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GENERAL MECHANICS.
This course is required of every student in the Department of
Engineering. The object is to convey such a knowledge of rational
and technical mechanics, as is essential for the correct understanding
of the problems of construction, and such facility in the analytical
and graphical methods of solution, and the processes of the testing
laboratory as will make the young engineer a competent guide in
questions of design.
1. Rational Mechanics.
The work of the first term is devoted to a careful survey of the fundamental
principles of Rational Mechanics. The synthetic method is
the object being to convey a sound knowledge of dynamical principles,
disentangled from extrinsic mathematical difficulties. For this purpose
a good text-book is minutely studied, several hundred simple exercises
are solved, and the progress of the student is tested by constant
examinations, oral and written. The course covers statics, the elementary
dynamics of a particle, hydrostatics, and hydraulics.
2. Strength of Materials.
The subject of Strength of Materials is taken as the work of the
second term. A careful analysis is made of the problems of stress
and strain for the cases of simple tension, compression, bending,
shearing, and twisting with due regard to all the normal arrangements
of load. The fundamental rules for strength and elasticity furnished
by this analysis are then applied to actual tests of materials in the
laboratory. The student performs for himself under the guidance of
the instructor actual tests of steel and iron, cast iron, timber, cements,
bricks, and building stones, and is required in addition to plan occasional
independent investigations, devise apparatus, execute the tests,
and report in writing his results. The problems of compound stress
are next examined and the more important of these are discussed in
detail; the shearing action in beams, the strength of columns, the
resistance of shafts to combined twisting and bending, and the strains
in compound and trussed girders are examined. Finally, the elements
of machines are considered and the rules of design for rivets, pins,
bolts, keys, journals, axles, cranks, connecting rods, pipes, cylinders,
cross-heads, guide bars, and so on, are deduced and applied.
3. Graphical Statics.
During the last term the attention of the student is directed to the
determination of the straining actions in the elementary members of
structures, and the practical design of the simpler examples. Use is
made of analytical processes, but especial attention is given to the
methods of Graphical Statics. The determination of stress in the
ordinary classes of foundations is first taken up. Next follows the
study of the strength and stability of walls and piers, of reservoir
dams for water, and of retaining walls for earth. The design of
stone arches and their abutments for both highway and railway
bridges is next studied. The course then passes on to deduce the
constructive rules for simple beams as employed for the floors of
buildings and bridges, either as joists or girders, and in both timber
and steel. The construction and design of roof trusses, both of timber
and of steel, is next taken up. Finally, as complete a study is
made as the limitations of time will permit of the ordinary forms of
bridge construction for both highway and railway bridges, under both
out in class for a timber-trussed bridge, a plate-girder bridge, and
one or more steel-trussed bridges. In addition to the work done in
the class-room every student is required to make for himself an independent
analysis of one example of each type of structure discussed.
Illustrations are drawn through the entire course from current engineering
practice and an abundance of such practical exercises serves
to add vitality and utility to the instruction given.
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