In this video, I solve Problem 1 of the EM 304 test that Dr. Judy Wood gave her students on February 6, 2003, five days after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. If a thermal tile is lost, how hot can an aluminum tube held between two rigid support plates get before something fails? I check three candidates: compression in the aluminum tube (442.2 °F), bearing on the plate at the tube end (515.9 °F), and shear in the plate around the tube (205.03 °F). The shear stress in the plate arises due to the compressive stress in the tube that the plate is connected to. Since the temperature of 205 °F is the lowest, the failure occurs first as shear in the plate, even though the corresponding compressive stress in the tube (27.8 ksi) is far less than its strength limit of 60 ksi.
Notes: https://mes.fm/em-304-failure-temperature-columbia 3Speak: https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mes/5g1rd6rm
