Engineering the Future

The main sections of the museum are listed below;

Metal Fatigue
Manufacturing Faults
Bicycle Components
Corrosion
Polymers
Composite Materials

Tools of the trade, some ways to investigate problems;
Photoelasticity
Dye penetrant testing

Glossary
of materials engineering terms

The use of Photoelasticity

Click on pictures below for full size image in new window
	Stress fields (applied and residual) can be exposed using models of structures in photosensitive material placed between polarising filters in the crossed polar position. Here the stresses in a 7 member model bridge truss, centrally loaded and simply supported are shown.
	These injection moulded safety spectacles contain residual moulding stresses shown here using photoelastic viewing techniques.