Introduction

FUNCTION

SHAPE
SHAPES FOR TENSION,
BENDING, TORSION,
BUCKLING
-------------------SHAPE FACTORS
-------------------PERFORMANCE INDICES
WITH SHAPE

MATERIAL

PROCESS

What is the purpose?

Shape

Change the
way
material
feels

Increase
mechanical
efficiency of
material

Maximize the performance of a

materials
Show the concept of performance
indices
Improve the efficiency

Symbols thats being used in material and shape selection

Mode of Loading and

Shaping
Axial
Bending
torsion

Axial
tension

Shape is not
important

Bending

I-Beam or Hollow
Box are better than
solid sections

Torsion

Circular tube is the

best

Shape Factors
Is a dimensionless number which
characterizes the efficiency of a section
shape in a given mode of loading
It does not depend on scale

It can be classified into Elastics and

Failure/Strength

Shape Factors : Elastics

Shape Factors :
Failure/Strength

Shape factors for several

shapes :

Microscopics or Micro-structural
Shape Factors
At the beginning, an it
was only considered the
macroscopic shape on
the performance of fully
dense materials.
However materials can
have internal shape,
Micro-Shape which also
affects their
performance, e.g. cellular
solids, foams,
honeycombs.

Consider a solid cylindrical beam expanded, at

constant mass, to a circular beam with internal
shape (see right).

SBo
Stiffness of the solid beam:

C1EoIo
L3

On expanding the beam, its density falls from

1to
/2
to , and its radius increases
from
ro
o

The second
moment of area
increases to

If the cells, fibres or rings are

Eo
parallel to the axis of the beam E
o
then
The stiffness of the
C EI C EI
expanded beam is thus SB 1 3 1 3 o o

Fibres
embedded in
a foam matrix

ro

I r 4 o ro4 o Io
4
4

Prismatic cells

Concentric
cylindrical shells
with foam
between

Shape Factor: B
e

S o

So

Limit to Shape Efficiency

We need to know the
efficiency at each own
mode of loading
It is used to make stiffer
and stronger structures

Efficiency :

Kind of limits :

Empirical
Limits
There are practical

limits for the

It is imposed by
slenderness of
the properties of
sections, and these the material itself
determine, for a
because these
given material, the
determine the
maximum
failure mode of the
attainable
section
efficiencies.

Limit composed by load

buckling
It appear when
efficient shapes
can be fabricated,
the limits of the
efficiency are set
by the
competition
between failure
modes.

If failure by one
mechanism occurs
It is a
at a lower load
characteristic of
than all others,
shapes that
the section shape
approach their
can be adjusted to
limiting efficiency
suppress it; but
that two or more
this pushes the
failure modes
load upwards until
occur at almost
another
the same load.
mechanism
becomes
dominant.

Exploring and Comparing Structural

Sections
1. Stiffness-Limited Design :
. Chose a material for the section and mark its modulus E and
density onto the materials chart in the first quadrant of the figure.
. Choose the desired section stiffness (EI); it is a constraint that
must be met by the section. Extend a horizontal line from the
value of E for the material to the appropriate contour in the
constraint chart in the second quadrant.
. Drop a vertical from this point onto the shape chart in the third
quadrant to the line describing the shape factor
for the section.
Values of I and A outside the shaded bands are forbidden.
. Extend a horizontal line from this point to the performance chart
in the final quadrant (the one on the bottom left). Drop a vertical
from the material density in the material chart. The intersection
shows the mass per unit length of the section.
e
B

2. Strength-Limited Design
A schematic of 4
quadrants chart
shows the
performance chart at
the lower left has the
same axes as before
A and and the
diagonal contours
again show the
metric of
performance: the
mass per unit length,
mlA, of the section

Material indices that include shape