Gain essential skills in strength of materials and structural analysis. Learn how to analyze multi-axial states of stress and strain, apply objective failure criteria, and predict linear elastic structural behavior using energy methods.
Gain essential skills in strength of materials and structural analysis. Learn how to analyze multi-axial states of stress and strain, apply objective failure criteria, and predict linear elastic structural behavior using energy methods.
In this online course from the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, you will develop the foundational knowledge to predict and prevent structural failure. You’ll get an introduction to energy methods, which form one basis for numerical techniques (like the Finite Element Method) to solve complex mechanics problems.
Professor David Parks graduated in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at Brown University. He was Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering and Applied Science at Yale University for two and a half years before moving to MIT, where he is currently Professor of Mechanical Engineering. His primary interests focus on the development of accurate and tractable models of the mechanical behavior of engineering materials that are based on essential features of the material structures and mechanisms of deformation and failure in a range of materials including metals, polymers, ceramics, and composites. Recent research has centered on the mechanical behavior of graphene under extreme loading, and on solid state roll-bonding of polymer laminae via plastic deformation.
Dr. Simona Socrate is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and a Principal Research Scientist at MIT/ISN. She earned a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Rome (1991), and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT (1995). She has been teaching classes in structural mechanics at MIT for more than twenty years. Her research efforts focus on the mechanical behavior of fabrics, composites, and soft biological tissue. Her areas of interest include measuring and modeling the high strain rate properties of biological tissue to prevent injuries, and investigating the mechanics of pregnancy to reduce the risk of pre-term delivery.