Assignment - 1

MEN206 ENGINEERING ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

Submission Date : 20-02-2018

1. A rocket is designed to travel a distance of 12s in a vertically upward direction. The thrust of
the rocket can be changed only at the discrete points located at distances of 0, 1s, 2s, 3s,. . . .,
12s. If the maximum thrust that can be developed at point ’i’ either in the positive or negative
direction is restricted to a value of Fi , Formulate the non-linear programming (NLP) problem
of minimizing the total time of travel under the following assumptions:
(i) The rocket travels against the gravitational force.
(ii) The mass of the rocket reduces in proportion to the distance travelled.
(iii) The air resistance is proportional to the velocity of the rocket.
2. Four identical helical springs are used to support a milling machine weighing 5000lb. Formulate
the non-linear programming (NLP) problem of finding the wire diameter (d), coil diameter (D),
and the number of turns (N ) of each spring as shown in figure, for minimum weight by limiting
the deflection to 0.1 in. and the shear stress to 10, 000 psi in the spring. In addition, the natural
frequency of vibration of the spring is to be greater than 100Hz. The stiffness of the spring (k),
the shear stress in the spring (τ ), and the natural frequency of vibration of the spring (fn ) are
given by
d4 G 8F D
k= 3
, τ = Ks
8D N πd3
r s √
1 kg 1 d4 G g Ggd
fn = = 3 2
= √
2 w 2 8D N ρ(πd /4)πDN 2 2ρπD2 N
where G is the shear modulus, F the compressive load on the spring, w the weight of the spring,
ρ the weight density of the spring, and Ks the shear stress correction factor. Assume that the
material is spring steel with G = 12 × 106 psi and ρ = 0.3 lb/in3 , and the shear stress correction
factor is Ks ≈ 1.05.

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3. Bracket the minimum of following functions using bounding phase method. In all cases use an
initial point x(0) = 0 and an initial ∆ = 1.
(i) f (x) = x3 − 2x + 10.
(ii) f (x) = exp((x − 0.2)2 /2).
(iii) f (x) = 2x4 − x3 + 5x2 − 12x + 1.

4. Use three iterations of golden section search method in order to maximize the function

f (x) = 10 + x3 − 2x − 5exp(x)

in the interval (−5, 5).

5. Compare the golden section search method and interval halving method in terms of the obtained
interval after 10 function evaluations for the minimization of the function

f (x) = x2 − 10exp(0.1x)

in the interval (−10, 5).

6. We would like to use the following approximating second order polynomial

q(x) = a0 + a1 (x − x1 ) + a2 (x − x1 )(x − x2 )

to match the objective function values f1 and f2 at two points x1 and x2 (i.e. x2 > x1 ), respec-
tively, and the first derivative f10 at x1 .
(i) Find a0 , a1 and a2 in terms of x1 , x2 , f1 , f2 and f10 .
(ii) Find the minimum of the approximating function.
(iii) In finding the minimum of f (x) = x3 − 3x + 2, we would like to use the above approxi-
mating polynomial q(x) for the following two scenarios:
(a) x1 = 2 and x2 = 3. Find the approximating minimum solution obtained after one
iteration of this approach.
(b) x1 = −5 and x2 = 5. Explain why we cannot use these points to successfully find
minimum of f (x).