Stress Engineers Quiz

pen and paper only: no calculators, phones or laptops

Marks /70
1. The early model Boeing 747 aircraft featured a design that is no longer found in other
commercial aircraft. What is it?
a) 1950s Diner type restaurant b) Small, chlorine free, swimming pool c) Spiral staircase d)
Parachutes for all 1st class passengers and crew
2. A guillotine must shear a sheet of metal 0.6m wide and 3mm thick. The ultimate shear stress
is 51.5MPa. Estimate the force required. a) 80kN b) 90kN c) 100Kn d) 70kN
3. In terms of engineering software, what does CAD stand for?

4. Whos the famous aviator?

a) Howard Hughs b) Charles Lindbergh c) Louis
Bleriot d) Jimmy Doolittle e) James Stewart
5. On an aerospace drawing if you cannot find the material in the title block; where can you find
it? a) notes b) parts list bill of materials c) assembly drawing d) installation drawing
6. The neutral axis of the cross-section of a beam is that axis which the bending stress is:
a) zero b) maximum c) minimum d) infinity
7. A vertical column has two moments of inertia (i.e. Ixx and Iyy ). The column will tend to

buckle in the direction of the

a) axis of load b) perpendicular to the axis of load c) maximum moment of inertia d)
minimum moment of inertia.
8. What does NASA stand for?
a) North American Space Agency b) National Aeronautics and Space Administration c)
National Academy (for) Space Advancement d) National Aeronautical and Space Agency

9. In the below figure, the point E represents the maximum stress. True / False?

10. For a beam, as shown in the below figure, when the load W is applied in the centre of
the beam, the maximum moment is:

Wa/6, Wb/8, Wl/4, W(a+b)/8

11. A simply supported beam 'A' of length l, breadth b and depth d carries a central load
W. Another beam 'B' of the same dimensions carries a central load equal to 2 W. The
deflection of beam 'B' will be __________ as that of beam 'A'.
a) One-fourth b) one-half c) double d) four times

12. Rivets and bolts are generally specified by:

a) Thickness of plates to be joined b) overall length c) shank diameter d) diameter of
the head
13. Moment of inertia of a hollow circular section, as shown in the below figure about
X-axis, is

14. The property of a material due to which it breaks with little permanent distortion, is
called: a) brittleness b) malleability c) ductility d) plasticity
15. Who was the first US President to fly (either in, or out of office) a) John Quincy
Adams b) Theodore Roosevelt c) William Howard Taft d) Woodrow Wilson e) James
Knox Polk
16. A cantilever beam has a square cross section of 100mm2 and length 2m. There is a
point load at the tip of 500N acting down and a tensile load of 10,000N acting along
the line of the beam at the tip. What is the maximum value of tensile stress developed
in the beam? a) 5900MPa b) 6100MPa c) 6000MPa d) 6050MPa
Is this value rational? Give your reasons.
17. An error 2% in excess is made while measuring the side of a square beam. The
percentage of error in the calculated area of the square is:
a) 2% b) 4.04% c) 4% d) 2.02%

18.

19.
c) B66 Destroyer d) Gypsy Moth

What is the aircraft? a) DC -9 b) VC10 (Super)

20. A truss in a wing is 20mm diameter, and 10m long. It is subject to a tensile load of
300kN. E =200GN/m2. Estimate the elongation a) 5mm b) 50mm c)75mm d) 25mm
21. Whats the difference between Reserve Factor (RF) and Margin of Safety (MoS)?
a) Reserve Factor only applies to static calculations b) 1 c) about 50% d) There is no
difference.
22. Which one of the following failure modes is not normally checked for a lug
calculation? a) buckling b) shear-out c) tension d) bearing
23. A lug is 5mm thick and has a hole of diameter 10mm for the installation of a bolt.
What is the bearing stress if the applied load is 10,000N (a) 200MPa b) 300MPa c)
400MPa d) 2000MPa
24. Consider a symmetrical I beam; height 80mm, width 60mm, thicknesses of all
flanges and webs 10mm. Calculate Ixx :
a) 176cm4 b) 166cm4 c) 246cm4 d) 208cm4
25. By weight what % composites are on the 787? a) 50% b) 60% c) 70% d) 25%
26. What diameter is a #9 bolt? a) 14.28mm b) 11.11mm c) 9.53mm d) none of these

27.
Whos this? a) Galileo b) Leonardo da Vinci c) Sir Isaac
Newton d) Michelangelo e) my x-girlfriend
28. The region in the stress-strain curve extending from the origin to proportional
limit is called (a) plastic range (b) elastic range (c) semi plastic range (d) semi elastic
range

29. A material having identical properties in all directions, is called

(a) elastic (b) homogeneous (c) isotropic (d) all the above
30. On a typical aircraft production line what does FOD stand for? a) Fire Oppression
Device b) First Officers Den c) Foreign Object Debris d) Foul Odour Detector
31. Use each digit 1 to 9 inclusive in the square below to achieve the row, column and
diagonal addition as shown.
14

22

13

12

9 (column additions; left to right)

20 (row additions; top to bottom)

17 diagonal addition; bottom left to top right

15 diagonal addition; top left to bottom right

32. A bolt is used in a lap joint to connect two fuselage panels which are carrying a tensile
force. The stress developed in the bolt will be: a) tensile b) compressive c) shear d) bearing
33. In undercarriage structure; using a nose landing gear as an example, and the RH rule,
which best describes the sign convention for the 3 major force components acting on the
structure? a) V +ve up, D +ve aft, S +ve port; b) V +ve up, D +ve fwd, S +ve stbd; c) V +ve up,
D +ve fwd, S +ve port; d) V +ve up, D +ve aft, S +ve stbd
34. A construction crane with a 1.90 cm diameter cable has an ultimate tensile stress of 150
MPa. Estimate the maximum load that the crane can withstand. a) 45N b) 45kN c) 50kN d)
500N
35. The bending moment in a simply supported beam, centrally loaded, is a maximum when: a)
the shear force changes sign b) the shear force is uniform c) the shear force is minimum d)
the shear force is maximum
36. The radius of Mohrs circle is a) minimum normal stress b) minimum shear stress c)
maximum shear stress d) maximum normal stress
37. The ratio between the deformation of a body caused by subjecting it to stress and its
original length is called a) Doppler Effect b) Strain Energy c) Poissons Ratio d) Von Mises
Stress

38. Consider a cantilever beam with a vertical point load applied at the free end. Which two
quantities vanish at the fixed end of the beam? a) bending moment and transverse shear b)
deflection and bending moment c) deflection and transverse shear d) deflection and slope
39. The process by which an engineer constructs a mathematical model of a physical system
is called: (a) idealization b) fabrication c) validation d) verification e) divination
40. Which former Russian president had a degree in Civil Engineering (1955 - Ural Kirov
Polytechnic) - a) Boris Yeltsin b) Nita Khrushchev c) Mikhail Gorbachev d) Leonid Brezhnev
41. Enlarging a hole by a reasonable amount is called: a) reaming b) boring [the operation; not
the word dull aka the X factor] c) countersinking d) drilling
42. Approximately how many military aircraft were produced by the UK during World War
II? a) 8 b) 75,000 c)130,000 d)200,000
43. In the field of aircraft fatigue life measurement, OLM is commonly used as an acronym
for?: a) Ordinary Load Measure b) Operational Load Measurement c) On Line Maintenance d)
Optical Link Modules
44. What would be the approximate value in MPa for the endurance (fatigue threshold) of
un-notched aluminium alloy? a) 10MPa b) 130MPa c) 300MPa d) 100ksi
45. Which city is served by Schiphol Airport? a) Frankfurt b) Geneva c) Amsterdam d)
Warsaw e) Cherating
46. What structure is this description relevant to?
They are hinged on the wings and move downward to push the air down and make the wing
tilt up. a) elevators b) ailerons c) spoilers d) fwd passenger door
47. What was the DeHavilland Comet? a) Worlds first passenger jet b) VTOL; but subsonic
c) first pressurised bomber d) most popular commercial passenger jet e) Edmond Halleys
flat mates first astronomical observance
48. In the equation for lift generated by an aircraft aerofoil section; lift is proportional to
a) density squared b) wing area c) speed d) speed squared.
49. All of these are advantages of having a two spar wing, as opposed to a one spar wing
except:
a) The rear spar of a two spar wing is more convenient for mounting control surfaces b) The
torsion box formed by a two spar wing encloses a larger area than the leading edge D cell in
a single spar wing. This should give the two spar wing an advantage in greater polar moment
of inertia for less weight and should enable it to optimize the reaction of torque loads c)
there is more room for storage of fuel d) there are potentially fewer fasteners, bolts and
brackets etc.

50. Stress Engineers are: a) Intelligent b) Funny c) Attractive d) All of these e) None of
these.
Marks:
Questions which attract 1 mark: 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26,
27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50
Questions which attract 2 marks: 2, 5, 10, 18, 23, 33, 34, 35, 38, 44
Questions which attract 3 marks: 16, 20, 24 Question which attracts 5 marks: 31
Happy Holidays
Guy Little