INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS

JUL-NOV, 2021
Instructors: Dr. Sundararajan Natarajan

ME5201: COMPUTATIONAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING

End Semester Examination

(Time allowed: 120 minutes)

• Answer all questions.

• Make suitable assumptions/approximations if required. Justify them if you make an

assumption/approximation.

• No questions encouraged.

• Open class notes.

• By taking this exam, you promise to abide by the honor code (no web browsing, or
discussing offline with your friends through social media).

• There are three pages to this question paper.

• Please name the file as ME5201 RollNumber EndSem.pdf and upload the same in
google classroom.
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1. Taylor series: How many terms are necessary to guarantee that the Taylor polynomial
constructed centered at x = 0 is accurate to within 0.05 of the exact value when x = 0.3 for
f (x) = sin x. 5 Marks

2. Numericalintegration: If Ω is the region bounded above by the graph of the function

x2 − 16

x
f (x) = 9 + and below by the graph of the function g(x) = 6 − . Find the area
2 2
of the region Ω analytically and by using Gauss quadrature rule. 5 Marks

3. FDM/FEM, LU decomposition: Functionally graded materials (FGMs), originally de-

veloped as thermal barrier coatings for aerospace structures and fusions reactors, however,
these days, they find widespread applications in various components in transportation, en-
ergy, electronics, biomedical engineering, to name a few. The FGMs are engineered materials,
wherein, the material properties are graded from one end to the other. Typical FGMs are
made of metal and ceramics which offer optimal thermo-mechanical characteristics. Consider
a functionally graded bar of length L = 1 m, made of Ti-6Al-4V and ZrO2 . Assume that
the volume fraction of the metallic phase is:
 x p
Vm = ,
L
where L is the length of the domain, p ∈ N and the volume fraction of the ceramic phase is
given by: Vc = 1−Vm . The temperature at the left end of the bar, x = 0 is maintained at T =
10. Estimate the steady state temperature distribution in the bar and assume p = 0.5 using
either FDM/FEM combined with LU decomposition. The effective thermal conductivity is
given by:  
1 + 3(κc − κc )Vm (x)
κ(x) = κc
3κc + (κm − κc )Vc (x)
where κm = 18.1 W/mK and κc = 2.036 W/mK are the thermal conductivities of the metallic
and ceramic phase, respectively. 10 Marks

4. Time integration: When you light a match, the ball of flame grows rapidly it reaches a
critical size. Then, it remains at that size, because the amount of oxygen being consumed by
the combustion in the interior of the ball balances the amount available through the surface.
The following differential equations models the above phenomena:
dy
= y2 − y3, with y(0) = δ
dt
where δ is the initial radius of the flame. Use RK4 method.

• Using the initial radius δ = 0.8 and a step size of h = 0.5, estimate y(x = 1.5). 4 Marks
• What do you think is the critical size ? 1 Mark
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5. Eigenvalues: Choose the last rows of A and C to give eigenvalues 4,7 and 1,2,3:
 
  0 1 0
0 1
A= , C= 0 0 1 .
∗ ∗
∗ ∗ ∗

5 Marks

6. Interpolation: The following data of the velocity of a body is given as a function of time.
A quadratic Lagrange interpolation is found using the three data points, t = 15, 18 and 22
s. From this information, at what time in sec, is the velocity of the body 26 m/s?. 5 marks

Time (s) 10 15 18 22 24
Velocity (m/s) 22 24 37 25 123

Table 1: Gauss points and weights

Order Gauss Points Weights
1 √0 2
2 ±1/ 3 1
3 0 0.888889
-0.7746 0.5556
0.7746 0.5556
4 -0.3399 0.6522
0.3399 0.6522
-0.8611 0.3479
-0.8611 0.3479
5 0.9062 0.2370
-0.9062 0.2370
0.5385 0.4786
-0.5385 0.4786
0 0.5689

Good luck !