Material Selection

Identification of component/structure and its environment:

(ii) The function of this structure is for the students and staff of the university to park and/or lock their bicycles in the university in an orderly manner. The structure is made of multiple parallel rods that are welded onto perpendicular beams that form a triangular shaped base. This structure is ideal to fit bicycle wheels in between the rods from both sides of the structure as the rods are arranged alternately which maximises the efficiency of the structure.

(iii) The metal is located under the shade of an aluminium based shelter. However other than the top shelter, the sides are left uncovered leaving the metal exposed to the humid air conditions in Malaysia and heavy vapours when it rains. Seeing as it is located outdoors, the metal is day in and day out exposed to high temperatures when its sunny and cold temperatures during the night and rain fall. The metal will not be subjected to high stresses of any kind but it must be built to do so to prevent thieves from breaking the rods and stealing the bicycles locked onto it.

(iv) Based on the CES Edu Pack, my best guess of what the metal could be is medium carbon steel. I believe this steel was selected as it is easily casted with a Young’s modulus of 200-216 GPa, cheap with a price range of 2.22-2.44 MYR/kg and it possess a yield strength of 305-900 MPa which is relatively high for this type of application. However this material’s durability to rain and atmospheric vapour also known as water(fresh) in the CES software is only at an acceptable range which would suggest that it is not very resistant to corrosion on its own.

Description of the corrosion process

(i) There are generally 5 types of corrosion that could occur to metals depending on the environment or electrolyte and the type of the metals involved. Firstly, there’s uniform or general corrosion which is the loss of metal uniformly from the surface which is often combined with...