Wednesday 3 July 2013

Proposed Alternative Research Question: Material Testing (by Darelyn Lim)

Introduction:

Material testing is a method that is used by many engineers to test out the materials used to build structures and buildings. Often, material testing involve deliberately breakage of things. The conditions of the test must be carefully controlled in order to collect the suitable data about the strength and other properties of the materials used in the study. 

The reliability of the material can be measured by the amount of stress, strain and strength. This project will involve making different structures that are strong and light by using uncooked spaghetti and white glue. 

In this project, we will find out the strength of beams made from strands of spaghetti. There are many different brands of spaghetti available in the market and the strength of each strand of spaghetti of different brands is different. By gluing strands of spaghetti together, the strength of the beam is greater. We can also find out if linguine work better than spaghetti and find out the best strength-weight ratio of the different beams. The convenience of attaching the beams to make a strong and light structure is also essential. 

Terms and Concepts: 

Stress
Strain 
Brittle 
Ductile
Strength to weight ratio

Questions:

What is the difference between tensile stress and compressive stress?

When you hang a weight from the center of a beam which is supported at both ends, what stress(es) do you induce on the beam, and where?

What geometrical shapes create structures that are both strong and light?

Feasibility:

Building a tower made using uncooked spaghetti and white glue is easy and convenient as many brands of spaghetti is available in the market. We are given a time period of 3 weeks to complete the project and it is certainly possible to meet the deadline. This project will be able to make structures that are light and strong which will be useful for future architectural designs. The lab equipments needed for this project is also readily available in the research lab. This project is also cost effective as it only requires purchasing different types of spaghetti from the market and maybe linguine. 

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