The subject «Strength of Materials» is a matter that forms part of the module «Common to the Industrial Branch» of the plan of studies of the Degree in Mechanical Engineering (Specialization: Naval Technology) that is taught in the first term of the second academic year in the CUD-ENM.
The main objective of Strength of Materials is the analysis of stresses and deformations of deformable solids under external actions. Therefore, it is the study of the mechanics of deformable solids, determining the values that external actions can take so that deformation or even fracture phenomena do not occur or th dimensions that a certain resistant element must have to withstand some given external actions, without the generated internal forces or the deformations exceeding the maximum allowable.
Analytically, relationships between external actions and internal stresses are obtained, as well as between these and the produced deformations, which, together with the equations of classical Mechanics (particularly those of statics, kinematics and dynamics), govern the mechanical behaviour of the deformable solids. Likewise, this discipline has the foundations on the Theory of the Elasticity, which establishes a mathematical model of the behaviour of a defromable elastic medium subjected to a series of external actions. However, Strength of Materials incorporates some simplifying hypotheses to those already adopted by Elasticity.
In this subject, the deformation and stress states that occur in a mechanical prism will be addressed when an external action takes place: normal stress, shear stress and bending moment, as well as when it is subjected to the combination of several of such actions. The treatment of the different problems is done from the simplifying hypotheses of Strength of Materials. The rigorous analysis of some of them, using the Theory of Elasticity, will constitute part of the topics corresponding to the subject "Elasticity and Advanced Strength of Materials", corresponding to the first term of the third academic year.
