Solving plane stress problems using EsfPlano2D educational software

Abstract

An educational computational application for analyzing plane stress problems oriented to engineering students called EsfPlano2D is presented to motivate students to study the subject and strengthen didactic strategies in the classroom. The application assists the step-by-step calculation of plane stress problems, which is a fundamental topic in teaching the subject of Mechanics of Materials in engineering careers. The application is a computer program developed in Fortran, linked to the free Computer Algebra System MAXIMA to plot Mohr’s circle of stresses. The developed tool is user-friendly and completely solves the plane stress problem, the associated deformations, and the strain energy by drawing Mohr’s circle of plane stresses. A validation case is presented with a typical example of the mechanics of materials. The results show the feasibility of using custom-designed tools to strengthen classroom learning and autonomous work.