Thesis
Student understanding of stress and strain in axially loaded members and beams
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2010
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/103123
Abstract
A career in engineering design requires an individual to do more than simply pick the correct equation. To be a successful engineer requires the ability to understand, apply, and transfer information to new situations. This level of competence is regularly described as conceptual understanding. To help assess students' levels of understanding concept inventories were developed in engineering disciplines such as physics, thermodynamics, statistics, and fluid mechanics. The concept inventories have proven that students lack an acceptable level of conceptual understanding on basic engineering concepts. However, the concept inventory for mechanics of materials is still under development and lacks a detailed account of student misconceptions. The goal of this research is to investigate student conceptual understanding of normal stress, normal strain, shear stress, and shear strain in an axially loaded member using clinical demonstration interviews. Interviews were designed to have students approach these four fundamental concepts of mechanics of materials in multiple contexts in order to gain a conclusive view of their understanding. Students generally were consistent and correct in their understanding of normal stress and strain in the direction of the applied load, but displayed incorrect reasoning and logic relating to normal stress and strain perpendicular to the load, and shear strain and stress. These confirm just like other studies in science and engineering, that misconceptions do exist within basic engineering concepts.
Metrics
41 File views/ downloads
12 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Student understanding of stress and strain in axially loaded members and beams
- Creators
- Dean Tyler Lewis
- Contributors
- Shane Brown (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525138301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis