NivaarExam PrepOfficial exam papers ↗

22-Mec-B8 Engineering Materials: May 2017

Nivaar worked solution (AI-drafted; not reviewed by a licensed engineer)

  1. Question 1 Necking of a ductile wire — Considère's criterion
  2. Question 2 Heat-treatment schemes for 1080 steel using the TTT diagram
  3. Question 3 Composition of a barium-borate glass-ceramic in weight percent
  4. Question 4 Why carbon embrittles high-tensile steel, and how maraging steels avoid it
  5. Question 5 Magnesium sacrificial anode in a hot water heater
  6. Question 6 Processing routes for aerospace FRP laminated components
  7. Question 7 E-glass/PVC composite — modulus, load sharing and strain
  8. Question 8 Three aluminium alloys for transport-aircraft floor beams

Start with Question 1 →

Paper format. National Exams, May 2017 — 16-Mec-B8 Engineering Materials. Three hours, open book; any non-communicating calculator permitted. Eight problems, all of equal value; any FIVE constitute a complete paper, so each problem is worth 20 marks. Candidates are urged to submit a clear statement of any assumptions made. All eight problems are solved below, because the set as a whole is the study resource.

Reference texts (22-Mec-B8 Engineering Materials).

  • Askeland & Wright, The Science and Engineering of Materials, 7th ed. — the primary syllabus text.
  • Callister & Rethwisch, Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction, 10th ed.
  • Dieter, Mechanical Metallurgy, 3rd ed. — Considère's construction and plastic instability.
  • Shackelford, Introduction to Materials Science for Engineers, 8th ed. — ceramics, glasses and glass-ceramics.
  • Fontana, Corrosion Engineering, 3rd ed. — galvanic series, sacrificial protection and Faraday's law.
  • Ashby, Materials Selection in Mechanical Design, 5th ed. — selection criteria and material indices.
  • Polmear, Light Alloys, 5th ed. — aluminium tempers, Al–Li alloys and maraging steels.

Note on this sitting. Seven of the eight problems restate archetypes seen in 2013–2016 with fresh data, and every calculation below has been re-worked from this paper's numbers. Question 8 is the genuinely new one: the familiar aluminium–lithium substitution has been expanded into a three-alloy selection problem that also asks for the beam volume and for a strength-to-density ranking, and the two halves of it do not pick the same alloy.