AEROSPACE MATERIALS LAB

(ASE 224L)

FINAL EXAM

SPRING 1995

Saturday, May 13, 2-4 p.m.

Location: CPE 2.210

There are four questions in this exam. The number of points assigned to each question is shown
in parenthesis. This is a closed exam, so you should not make any reference to notes,
homeworks, books, etc.

Name: __________________________________________

Section T W Th (Circle one)

a) Show that the tensile modulus in the fiber direction is

explaining the various terms in the equation. (4)

b) Describe how you would check this result experimentally. (3)

c) Indicate what other experiments you would have to conduct in order to fully
characterize the linearly elastic behavior and strengths of the material. (4)

d) A composite drive shaft is a tube made of fibers running in the hoop direction and
embedded in a polymer matrix. During installation, the tubes are subjected to a
compressive strain, -ε a, in order to fit them between the universal joints. The
torque on the drive shaft gives rise to a shear stress τ . Determine the other
stresses and strains in the tube if ε a = 0.1% and τ = 25 ksi. (4)

The compliance matrix of the material is

and E1 = 20 x 106 psi, ν 12 = 0.25, ν12 = 0.025, G12 = 5 x 106 psi.

Torque
2. Two steel alloys were subjected to Charpy Impact tests over a range of temperatures.
The energy absorbed during the tests is plotted as a function of temperature.

20

Charpy Energy (ft lb)

.
10

-100 -50 0 50
Temperature ( Centigrade)

a) Determine the transition temperature for each material and explain which one you
would use in order to avoid the possibility of fracture as much as possible. (3)

b) The specimens that were used in the experiment were 5mm thick. The materials
will be used in structural components that require a 25mm thickness. Explain
whether or not the transition temperatures determined in a) would be
conservative. (3)

c) What fracture mechanism is dominant below the transition temperature and how
does it manifest itself on the fracture surface? (2)

d) How do river lines occur and what information do they provide? (2)
3. The compressor blades of a jet engine are to be made from a Titanium alloy. One of the
possible failure modes has been identified as fatigue failure due to the running and
stopping of the engine for each flight.

a) Indicate how you would determine the resistance that Titanium has to fatigue
failure when mean stress effects are not present. (3)

b) If the fatigue strength of the material was 3,000 psi and failure was noted at 8,323
and 226 cycles when the stress amplitude was 7,000 and 14,800 psi, respectively,
determine the S-N curve. (4)

c) The axial stress in each blade due to the rotation of the compressor is given by

where ρ is the density (0.2 lb/in3), ω is the angular velocity (radians/s) about the
z-axis, L is the length of the blade (20 in) and x is the distance from the root. The
lift force on each blade is to be modeled as a uniform load W (lb/in) acting in the
z direction. The relation between the lift and angular velocity is W = αω, with
α = 0.01. The number of flights at various angular velocities is noted below.
Determine how many flights could be made at 16 radians/sec. (5)

ω (radians/s) cycles
10 3.409 x 106
13 1.009 x 104
19 62
22 40

c) Determine the mean stress due to the loading in c) and indicate how it could have
been accounted for. (3)

NOTE: The bending moment due to a uniform load is .

b = 0.5", h = 0.1"
4. During a routine inspection of a bolted assembly, a crack has been found emanating from
one of the holes as shown below. Due to the crack growth, the contact between the bolt
and the hole is intermittent and there is concern about failure due to fretting. One
solution being considered for avoiding fretting is to force fit a bigger bolt into the hole.
The bigger bolt essentially applies a point load, P, to each crack face. There are two
possible problems with this solution. First, the insertion of the bolt may cause the crack
to grow in a fast fracture mode. Second, if insertion did not cause immediate growth,
fluctuating loads on the 0.25˝ thick plate could essentially cause cracks to grow by
causing variations in the force fit load, P.

a) Indicate what material properties need to be determined in order to address both

b) Insertion of the bolt essentially causes the level of the point load to be 6,325 lb. If
, determine whether or not any crack growth due to insertion would be observed.
The bolt head has an effective diameter of 1.0 inch. (4)

c) As the plate is loaded during each cycle, the load P due to the force fit drops to
325 lb. Determine how far away (center to center) neighboring 0.5 inch diameter
holes would have to be placed from the cracked hole in order to make sure that
the cracks emanating from the center hole did not reach the neighboring holes. In
addition, determine how many cycles it would take before the cracks arrested.
The Paris law constants are A = 10-20 and n = 4, where the stress intensity factor is
specified in . The threshold toughness is . (5).

NOTE:The stress intensity factor due to the point load P is

, where b is the plate thickness