Faculty of Engineering and Materials Science

Introduction to materials engineering

(MATS-404)

Assignment, 2021
Due date:27/6/2021, 5pm
You have a shaft with a circular cross section having a diameter of 20 mm. The
shaft will be subjected to a bending moment of 150 N.m as shown in the figure
below.

The shaft is made of steel having a carbon weight concentration of 0.15%.

The material must have a yield strength that can withstand the stress
resulting from the moment (Do not consider safety factors). Steel has a
yield strength that varies with carbon concentration according to the
equation:
σy (MPa) = 150 + 100C, where C is the weight percentage of carbon in the
steel.
The shaft is supposed to be strengthened using carburizing such that
carbon diffuses a certain depth inside the shaft while being placed in a
carbon rich environment. The surface of the shaft will be subjected to a
carbon weight concentration of 0.6% and the diffusion coefficient will be
1.3 x 10-11 m2/s.
a) Calculate the minimum time needed for the diffusion process. This is an
optimization problem that you can’t solve by hand. You should use Excel
(specifically the add-in called SOLVER) together with the built in
functions to find the minimum time. Use an initial guess of 300 seconds
and a radius/depth increment of 0.2 mm.
b) Draw a graph showing how the carbon weight percentage changes with
depth. In other words, draw a graph with carbon weight percentage on
the y-axis and radius/depth on the x-axis from the outer surface till the
center of the shaft. You may use Excel or matlab or whatever software
to draw that graph.
c) Draw graphs showing how the yield strength and the stress due to
bending change with depth, on the same figure. In other words, draw a
graph with yield strength and stress due to bending on the y-axis and
radius/depth on the x-axis from the outer surface till the center of the
shaft. You may use Excel or matlab or whatever software to draw that
graph.
 d) Find out the critical depth at which the stress resulting from the bending
moment is very close to the yield strength of the material. Mention the
carbon weight percentage at that depth.

You need to use excel and the “solver” add-in to solve this problem. You need to
provide a print out of the excel sheet you used to do your calculations together
with your answers.

Supplementary information

𝐶𝑠 − 𝐶𝑥 𝑥
= erf⁡( )
𝐶𝑠 − 𝐶0 2√𝐷𝑡