Objectives

The objectives for this week's experiment are:

1. To enhance the student's understanding of the term failure.
2. To familiarize the student with the mechanical properties of ordinary carbon steel within the inelastic range.
3. To demonstrate the use of three-point flexure equipment.

 

The challenge to the engineer...is to design systems and devices that have well-defined and predictable failure and breaking points so that such physical phenomena as collapse or fracture happen in a way and at the time they are suppose to.

The challenge to engineers throughout the ages has been to understand how and why everything, both natural and artificial, fails and how to exploit that knowledge...

Failure is a relative concept, and we encounter it daily in more frequent and broad-ranging ways than is generally realized.

Quotes from Henry Petroski, Designed to Fail, American Scientist, September-October 1997, pp. 412-416.