Purpose: The intent of this page is to give an intro to the necessary background to structural mechanics.
Introduction to Fundamental Structures Concepts
Instead of attempting to summarize all the fundamentals necessary to understand structural mechanics, a good YouTube series by The Efficient Engineer gives a good a very informative and in depth summary.
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This playlist is < 0.5 hrs of content. I would strongly recommend watching all of it. Understanding material properties will help you understand what materials to select, how to select them, and why to select them. Again this series is here to help you establish the foundation. A further understanding is developed by applying your learnings and tuning into your MODS courses.
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Cross Sectional Profiles
Understanding Area Moment of Inertia (a.k.a moment of inertia):
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Area Moment of Inertia, I [m4] | IA < IC < IB |
Cross Sectional Area, A [m2] | AA = AC < AB |
Mass of Beam, m [kg] | MA = MC < MB |
Notice how section C still had a larger moment of inertia than A (not as large as that of B, however), but was able to achieve the same amount of mass.
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