Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University

CVEN305: Mechanics of Materials

Instructor:
Office:
E-mail:

Parisa Khodabakhshi
CVLB 603B
p_khodabakhshi@tamu.edu

Class Hours:

MWF 9:00-9:50 am, Room (location)

Office Hours:

MW 3:00-4:00 pm
Other appointments should be set by e-mail.

Prerequisites:

CVEN 221 (Engineering Mechanics: Statics) or equivalent.

Concurrent registration is not permitted.

Spring 2016

Teaching Assistant: Jane Doe, (location)

Office Hours: TBA
Course Overview
Students are expected to acquire a good understanding of the definitions of stress, strain, and the
constitutive relationship, mechanics of deformation of axially loaded members, members
subjected to pure bending, torsional members, and thin-walled pressure vessels. Students will
study the stress and deformation of structural members under combined loadings. Stability of
columns will also be studied.
Course Objective
Students will further develop their understanding of engineering mechanics and the response of
materials. Upon completion of the course students should be able to:
Explain the concepts of stress, strain, and constitutive relations
Distinguish elastic and plastic behavior
Predict the normal stresses and strains in members subject to axial load, pure bending,
torsion, or a combination of different load types
Predict shearing stresses and strains in beams and thin-walled structures
Design beams for pure bending, or transverse loading
Transform stresses and strains between different coordinate systems
Compute the deflections of determinate and indeterminate beams based on the concepts of
this course
Test the stability of columns subject to the applied loads
Textbooks
Ferdinand P. Beer, E. Russell Johnston, Jr., John T. DeWolf, and David F. Mazurek,
Mechanics of Materials, 7th Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2015.
Russell C. Hibbeler, Mechanics of Materials, 8th Edition, Prentice Hall, 2010.

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Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University

CVEN305: Mechanics of Materials
Evaluation
Exam 1
Exam 2
Final Exam
Assignments & Activities
Attendance
Total

Spring 2016

20%
20%
40%
15%
5%
100%

Letter grades will be determined as follows:

A 90, 90 > B 80, 80 > C 70, 70 > D 60, F < 60
Attendance
Attendance is considered to be mandatory, and it is part of the course evaluation. In-class activities
and quizzes cannot be compensated for absentees. List of excused absences can be found at
http://student-rules.tamu.edu/.
Assignments
Assignments are due 1 week after being assigned, unless stated otherwise. Late assignments are
subject to 50% penalty. Assignments submitted later than 1 week from the due date will not be
accepted. Assignments should be turned in at the beginning of the class on the day the assignment
is due, unless stated otherwise. Assignments are expected to be completed based on individual
effort, unless allowed in advance by the instructor.
Assignments should be submitted on 8-1/2 11 engineering paper using a pencil/pen and written
in hand. Assignment submitted on a paper torn out of a spiral notebook will not be accepted.
Solutions should only be written on one side of the paper. Each paper should include the following
information:
1. Top of the page: Your name, course name, course number, section number, due date, problem
number
Page number and the total number of pages should appear on the upper right corner of each
page.
2. Body:
a. Problem description: A summary of the problem statement and the given data
b. Required: A summary of what have been asked
c. Solution: The solution must be prepared in a logical way. Final answers should be marked
clearly. Units should be stated for all variables.
d. Figures: Free body diagrams and other required figures should be provided for all
problems. The figures should have sufficient details.
e. Initials: Initial each page of the assignment in the lower right corner with an indelible ink
to indicate that you take full responsibility for the contents of the submitted assignment.
All papers should be assembled, stapled at the upper left corner, and submitted before due date. It
is recommended that you prepare a copy of the assignment for your own records. The copy proves
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Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University

CVEN305: Mechanics of Materials

Spring 2016

to be very useful while preparing for the exams, because graded assignments will not necessarily
be returned prior to the exams.
Exams
Two major exams are scheduled during the semester, and a comprehensive final exam is scheduled
for the end of the semester. Exams consist of four to six questions. The questions that appear on
exam will be inspired by the course material, assignments, and in-class activities. Failure to appear
for an exam without a valid university excused reason (as provided in http://studentrules.tamu.edu/) will result in losing the corresponding grade in your evaluation. If you miss an
exam due to a valid excused reason, you will be given either a similar exam, or the missed exam
will not count towards your final evaluation at the discretion of the instructor.
All of the exams require the use of a calculator. Use of other electronic devices are not allowed
during the exam. The list of the acceptable engineering calculators is provided in the following.
Students are responsible to bring an appropriate calculator to the exam, no calculators will be
Important Dates
All dates (except for the final exam) are tentative and subject to change.
Wednesday
Wednesday
Monday-Friday
Friday
Monday
Tuesday

January 20th
February 29th
March 14th March 18th
April 1st
May 2nd
May 10th

First day of class

First Exam, in-class (tentative)
No classes, Spring break
Second Exam, in-class (tentative)
Last day of class
Final Exam 1:00-3:00 pm

Academic Integrity Statement

An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do.
Students are expected to understand and abide by the Aggie Code of Honor presented on the web
at: http://www.tamu.edu/aggiehonor/. No form of scholastic misconduct will be tolerated.
Academic misconduct includes cheating, fabrication, falsification, multiple submissions,
plagiarism, complicity, etc. These are more fully defined in the above web site. Violations will be
handled in accordance with the Aggie Honor System Process described on the website.
Copyright Statement
The handouts used in this course are copyrighted. Handouts refer to all materials that have been
generated for this course (in this semester and all previous semester). Such materials include but
are not limited to notes, assignments, exams, quizzes, syllabi, and solutions. You do not have the
right to copy the materials, or distribute them for purposes other than what they were originally
intended for. Violations of copyright will be handled in accordance to Aggie Code of Honor.

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Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University

CVEN305: Mechanics of Materials

Spring 2016

Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides
comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this
legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that
provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability
requiring an accommodation, please contact Disability Services, in Cain Hall, Room B118, or call
845-1637. For additional information visit http://disability.tamu.edu.
It is the student's responsibility to contact the Office of Disability Services and notify me as the
instructor early in the semester, if they intend to exercise their rights under the ADA. The Office
of Disability Services is in complete charge of administering the ADA provisions.

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