Basics of Structural Analysis

Introduction

Structural analysis using about high school level physics and maths.

Aim to calculate fiberglass cansat structure

Basic theory

Principle of superposition: linearity. Displacement at location $B$ from forces $P_{1}$ and </math>P_2</math> located at different positions is calculated as $\Delta _{B}=\Delta _{BP_{1}}+\Delta _{BP_{2}}$

The energy principle: $dW=Fd\Delta$ giving the total energy as $W=\int _{0}^{\Delta }Fd\Delta$ which is called strain energy. For linear deformation this gives $U={\tfrac {1}{2}}F\Delta$.

Virtual work principle.

Dead loads, live loads, impact loads (impact factor), wind loads.

Equilibrium.

Forces:

• Normal force and axial force (out-of-plane forces, in-plane forces)
• Shearing force ${\frac {V(x)}{x}}=-w(x)$. Thus we have $\Delta V=\int w(x)dx$. $w(x)$ is the intensity of applied (normal?) force.
• Bending moment ${\frac {dM}{dx}}=V(x)$ and thus ${\frac {d^{2}M}{dx^{2}}}=-w(x)$.
• Torsion (of a plate)
• Curvature and twist

Hooke's law hold for linear elastic material: $\epsilon ={\frac {\sigma }{E}}$, where $\sigma$ is the bending stress. The force $\delta P$ is $\delta P=\sigma \delta A$.

Plate

• Torsion (of a plate)
• Curvature and twist $T_{xy}$.

Curvature in the $x$ direction $\kappa _{x}={\frac {1}{R_{x}}}$ is the rate of change of the slope with respect to arch length, giving $\kappa _{x}={\frac {\frac {\partial ^{2}w}{\partial x^{2}}}{{\sqrt {(1+\left({\frac {\partial w}{\partial x}}\right)^{2}}}^{3}}}$

Strains in a plate $\epsilon _{xx}$.

Von Kármán strains.

Beam

Forces:

• Normal force and axial force
• Shearing force ${\frac {V(x)}{x}}=-w(x)$. Thus we have $\Delta V=\int w(x)dx$. $w(x)$ is the intensity of applied (normal?) force.
• Bending moment ${\frac {dM}{dx}}=V(x)$ and thus ${\frac {d^{2}M}{dx^{2}}}=-w(x)$.

Deflection of beams

The deflection of a beam.

The strain $\epsilon$ in the filament is due to the different lengths of filaments in bended beam. $\epsilon ={\frac {\ell _{1}-\ell }{\ell }}={\frac {\Delta y}{R}}$ which for linear elastic material (using Hooke's law) gives ${\frac {\sigma }{E}}={\frac {\Delta y}{R}}=\epsilon$ where $\sigma$ is bending stress

Radius of curvature ${\frac {1}{R}}={\frac {\partial v^{2}}{\partial x^{2}}}$, and $\epsilon _{xx}=-y{\frac {\partial ^{2}v}{\partial x^{2}}}$.

Column

Column is a vertical beam.

Cylindrical Pipe

Axial stress

The force due to the pressure is $F=\int _{0}^{r}2p\pi rdr=2p\pi {\frac {r^{2}}{2}}=p\pi {\frac {D^{2}}{4}}$

The axial stress is $\sigma _{L}={\frac {F}{A}}={\frac {p\pi {\frac {D^{2}}{4}}}{\pi Dt}}={\frac {pD}{4t}}$

The pressure effect

The longitudinal stress and hoop (radial) stress.

$\sigma _{L}={\frac {pD}{4t}}$ where $p$ is the internal pressure, $D$ is the mean diameter of cylinder and $t$ is the wall thickness. Also, $\sigma _{H}={\frac {pD}{2t}}$.

Applying Hooke's law and the fact that $\sigma _{H}=2\sigma _{L}$ we get

$\sigma _{L}={\frac {\epsilon _{L}+v\epsilon _{H}}{1-\nu ^{2}}}E={\frac {\epsilon _{H}}{2-\nu }}E$

where $\nu$ is the Poisson's ratio and $E$ is the Young's modulus.

References

https://scholarshare.temple.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.12613/7150/Udoeyo-Textbook-2020.pdf?sequence=1

https://tiij.org/issues/issues/spring2006/12_Dues-Accepted/Dues.pdf