Forces and structures

Forces and structures

1. Strengthening beams and frame structures

   • Strong structural forms: Can be built using triangles, arches, boxes, cylinders’ corrugation or castellation
     • Triangulated frames use triangles to brace a frame across its diagonals
   • Edge loading prevents compression and torsion but leaves the beam subject to torsion
   • Corrugation and castellation displace the load more evenly, and increase the surface area of the structure. Ideal for thin panels.
   • Common beam sections include: L- section, T- section, I-section . Cylinder, box, and triangle section.
   • A column is a vertical structural component subjected to compression forces,(mostly).
   • A beam is a horizontal structural member. It has two contacts, or fixing points with the other components in a structure. A lintel above a doorway or window is a beam.
   • A Cantilever is a beam fixed at one end only. The position of a load determines how a cantilever works, and how it displaces a load. Large aircraft wings and some bridges are cantilevers.

2. Tension

   • Tension is the pulling force exerted by a string, cable, chain, or similar solid object on another object. The tension is caused by the forces pulling in opposite directions.

3. Compression

   • Compression is the result of a material when it is subject to compressive stress.

4. Torsion

   • Torsion is the twisting of an object that is result of an applied force

5. Bending

   • Bending describes the behavior of a structure when a external load (force) is applied perpendicularly to a axis.

6. Shear

   • The force being applied is parallel with the surface of the material being cut. This is in contradiction to other stresses that are normally applied vertically.

7. Stress

   • This is the amount of force being applied to the material per unit cross section

8. Strain

   • When a material has a force applied and it stretches, this is the amount of change in length as a proportion of the length before the force was applied