Department of Mechanical & Manufacturing

Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UPM

ASSIGNMENT 1

Course: Engineering Mathematics 1

Course Code: ECC 3001
Session: Semester 1 (2016/2017)

Title: Functions

Group Members:

Name Matric No. Signature

1. Loo Kai Xen 188327
2. Heng Kor Jin 187790
3. Muhammad Zulqarnain bin Razali 187398
4. Nur Fatin Adira binti Mohamad Fadzil 188289
5. Hazlan bin Husaing 187542

Lecturer Name: Dr. Siti Azfanizam Ahmad

Justification of choosing this engineering problem:
 Mathematics plays an important role in engineering design. We shall illustrate how some of
elementary ideas described are used to produce optimal designs. The design problem is to
produce a container of a given capacity that uses the least amount of material. Mass production
of such items implies that small savings on individual items produce large savings in the bulk
product.

Consider the open container shown in Figure1. The base and long sides are constructed from
material of thickness of 3t cm. By looking at the figure, the internal dimensions of the container
are l cm x b cm x h cm. First we obtain an expression for the volume A material used in the
manufacture of the container.

For various reasons, for example, ease of handling, marketing display, minimize error and
many more function, the manufacturer may impose other constraints on the design. We shall
illustrate this by first considering a special case or special task, and then look at the more
general case.
Engineering Problem:

Figure 1 shows a container with lengths l, b, h and t.

(Figure 1)

a) Obtain the expression for the volume A of material used in the manufacture of the
container.
b) Refer to (a), find the value b and h for optimal design of a container whose breadth b is
four times its height h and whose capacity is 10000cm3, using material of thickness
0.4cm and 1.2cm (so that t=0.4cm). (Special Case)
c) Refer to (a), find the optimal design without restricting the ratio of b to h. (General case)
References:

1. James, G., (2007). Modern Engineering Mathematics. (4th Edition). Essex: Prentice Hall.