Mathcad Community Challenge January 2022
Mathcad Contest Idea - January 2022
Plane Truss Mechanics
Can you use Mathcad to solve this problem?
This comes from page 88 of “An Introduction to the Mechanics of Solids,” by Stephen H. Crandall, Norman C. Dahl, and Thomas J. Lardner. This was the text for the first mechanical engineering class (2.01 Mechanics) that I took my sophomore year at MIT way back in 1989. You can find the book for as little as $5 on Amazon. It shows three different solutions for the problem, including:
- closed-form solutions involving equilibrium of forces and the beam-deflection equation
- a computer program called IBM STRESS
- Castigliano’s theorem which solves via elastic energy.
Any introductory mechanics text or a Schaum’s Outline should guide you to a solution. As with the other contests that will follow this one, the point is not the answer to the problem, but your execution of the solution.
Some ideas you may consider including in your worksheet:
- Allowing the user to change the material via a Combo Box Input Controls.
- Depicting the results with a Chart Component, such as the truss in the deformed shape, or the deflection at D due to changing input loads.
- Making the problem more open-ended, such as using matrices and programming for different geometry and loading.
Note that these are just ideas; I have not tried any of these. Maybe you can explore different approaches. The problem is simply a starting point.
This is an excellent problem for a team to solve, especially for civil and mechanical engineering students. How would you tackle this problem in Mathcad?
Find the Mathcad Community Challenge Guidelines here!