GATE Mechanical Engineering (ME) 2022 Shift 1 Solved Paper

A bracket is attached to a vertical column by means of two identical rivets U and V separated by a distance of 2a = 100 mm, as shown in the figure. The permissible shear stress of the rivet material is 50 MPa. If a load P = 10 kN is applied at an eccentricity e = 3√7 a, the minimum cross-sectional area of each of the rivets to avoid failure is ___________ mm².