Spring 2027

Design Problems in Elasticity

Design Problems in Elasticity covers analysis of elastic systems using strain-energy techniques, focusing on stresses and deflections in statically indeterminate structures and spring resilience.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Roxanne Engelstad

One student noted there was no textbook, but advised keeping ME306 and ME342 books on hand for reference.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Solve for the octahedral stress, stress invariants, principal stresses and direction cosines of the principal stresses for a state of stress involving 3 orthogonal normal stresses and 3 orthogonal shear stresses

  • Calculate strain energy density and strain energy for normal stresses from axial and bending loads and for shear stresses from torque loads within the elastic range

  • Apply energy methods to linear elastic structural mechanics problems including the Principle of Virtual work, Reciprocity Theorem, Unit Load Method, Castigliano’s Theorem, Stationary Potential Energy and the Rayleigh-Ritz Method

  • Verify compatibility and equilibrium of displacement fields for plane elasticity problems and solve for the corresponding stresses and/or strains

  • Analyze the stresses, strains and displacements caused by thermal, pressurization and rotational loading of axisymmetric plane elasticity problems (hollow and solid disks)

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

M E 306,E M A 303, graduate/professional standing, or member of Engineering Guest Students

    • M E 306
    • EMA 303
    • graduate/professional standing
    • member of Engineering Guest Students
    take one
ME 444

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Any of
    • M E 306
    • EMA 303
    • graduate/professional standing
    • member of Engineering Guest Students

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ROXANN ENGELSTAD is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Roxanne Engelstad

Students described the course material as complex but noted that the instructor made the information easy to understand.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2016: 3.43 GPA, 57.1% A/AB (n=7 letter grades); Fall 2018: 3.50 GPA, 70.0% A/AB (n=10 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.50 GPA, 62.5% A/AB (n=8 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Roxanne Engelstad

One student noted there was no textbook, but advised keeping ME306 and ME342 books on hand for reference.

Past student reviews · Roxanne Engelstad

A reviewer advised sitting in the front row while describing the instructor as one of the best they had.

Topics

  • Strain-energy techniques and energy methods for linear elastic structural mechanics
  • Stresses and deflections in statically indeterminate structures
  • Plane elasticity problems including compatibility and equilibrium of displacement fields
  • Axisymmetric plane elasticity problems under thermal, pressurization, and rotational loading
  • Resilience in springs

Skills

  • Applying strain-energy techniques and energy methods to solve linear elastic structural mechanics problems
  • Determining stresses, deflections, and displacements in statically indeterminate and plane elasticity structures
  • Calculating strain energy density and total strain energy for various loading conditions

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2024— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2024

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "b51fbc8a4c41b9c22055af14d80b136cb50403993d2b9b4d60f9b37975c1520a",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}