Extension of Ashby's performance indexes in mixed tension-bending solicitation

TL;DR

This paper extends Ashby's performance indexes to account for combined tension and bending solicitations, enabling more realistic material comparisons for structural design.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to develop performance indexes for combined mechanical solicitations, filling a gap in material selection tools.

Findings

Extended performance indexes for mixed tension-bending solicitations

Application to compare materials in realistic structural scenarios

Enhanced material selection accuracy for complex loadings

Abstract

Ashby's performance indexes are a fundamental tool for material selection especially for structures lightening. Unfortunately the indexes are available only for simple mechanical solicitation as pure bending or pure tension. For real applications, it is required to have a performance index for combined solicitations. This publication proposes an approach to develop this kind of extended performance index and shows the exploitation in order to compare materials performance in more realistic situations.