MEC-E6007 - Mechanical Testing of Materials D, Lecture, 27.2.2023-7.6.2023
This course space end date is set to 07.06.2023 Search Courses: MEC-E6007
case study
This case study, in lieu of an exam, serves as the summative assessment of the intended learning outcomes for the course. As with the laboratory exercise reports, this report should describe the test you discuss, in a way that will make it useful to you as a reminder of what you did and how to do it. Interpretation of the test is more than interpretation of the results, but if you present results a critical examination of what the results show and of how reliably the test shows that would be one way to demonstrate understanding.
For a self-assessment of your case study report, you can refer to the learning outcomes in the course syllabus and the specifications below, to treat writing this report as the inverse problem to grading it. The grade for the report is a wholistic assessment of each of the specified elements, taking into account how relevant each of those is to your particular case study. Each element deserves at least a sentence and probably a paragraph in any case study. One or more elements will likely need to be covered in greater detail to make it a useful discussion. You are strongly encouraged to select a case study that is relevant to your own work or interests, and use this case study as a way to solicit feedback on the ways you expect to apply what you have learned in this course, even if that does not map perfectly onto the specifications below.
For your case study, choose a question that would in practice be answered with a mechanical test. This could be a routinely performed standardised test, an acceptance criterion of a product, a novel test described in a journal paper, a practical need arising in your own work, or a hypothetical example. As always, cite your sources! The report should typically address the following elements:
- introduction
- provide context situating the question
- explain how the test enables to answer the question
- test description
- overview of the approach
- specimen preparation
- qualitative and quantitative characterization of the specimen before and after the test
- physical quantities to be measured
- including measurement methods
- instruments used
- criteria those must satisfy
- relevant safety precautions
- data processing and interpretation
- how to analyse the test results
- evaluation (a priori or a posteriori) of the accuracy
- reasons the test results might not be valid
- how to detect when that is the case
- reflection
- elaborate how the test results enable to answer the question
- conclude how confident you would be to perform this test yourself
- or what help you would need
- provide feedback on how this course could have been more useful to you