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The authors are grateful to the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid for financial support of projects Nuevas Tecnicas Docentes en la ensenanza de la Fisica and Adaptacion docente al Espacio Europeo de Educacion Superior: Diseno de asignaturas mediante B-Learning.
Analysis of institutional authors
Carbonell, VictoriaAuthorMartinez, ElviraAuthorFlorez, MercedesAuthorInteractive simulations as teaching tools for engineering mechanics courses
Publicated to:European Journal Of Physics. 34 (4): 991-1004 - 2013-07-01 34(4), DOI: 10.1088/0143-0807/34/4/991
Authors: Carbonell, Victoria; Romero, Carlos; Martinez, Elvira; Florez, Mercedes
Affiliations
Abstract
This study aimed to gauge the effect of interactive simulations in class as an active teaching strategy for a mechanics course. Engineering analysis and design often use the properties of planar sections in calculations. In the stress analysis of a beam under bending and torsional loads, cross-sectional properties are used to determine stress and displacement distributions in the beam cross section. The centroid, moments and products of inertia of an area made up of several common shapes (rectangles usually) may thus be obtained by adding the moments of inertia of the component areas (U-shape, L-shape, C-shape, etc). This procedure is used to calculate the second moments of structural shapes in engineering practice because the determination of their moments of inertia is necessary for the design of structural components. This paper presents examples of interactive simulations developed for teaching the 'Mechanics and mechanisms' course at the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain. The simulations focus on fundamental topics such as centroids, the properties of the moment of inertia, second moments of inertia with respect to two axes, principal moments of inertia and Mohr's Circle for plane stress, and were composed using Geogebra software. These learning tools feature animations, graphics and interactivity and were designed to encourage student participation and engagement in active learning activities, to effectively explain and illustrate course topics, and to build student problem-solving skills.
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Quality index
Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel
The work has been published in the journal European Journal Of Physics due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2013, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category Physics and Astronomy (Miscellaneous). Notably, the journal is positioned en el Cuartil Q4 for the agency WoS (JCR) in the category Education, Scientific Disciplines.
From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 1.86, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)
Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-08, the following number of citations:
- WoS: 8
- Scopus: 12
Impact and social visibility
Leadership analysis of institutional authors
There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (CARBONELL PADRINO, M. VICTORIA) and Last Author (FLOREZ GARCIA, MERCEDES).