Push on the ends of a thin ruler, and you're almost certain to bow it out to the side, similar to the (1) in the figure below. You haven't crushed or yielded the material that makes up the ruler,...
Posts by Engineer Eric
Many conventional structural shapes are very vulnerable to torsional loading. In doubly-symmetric shapes, like W-shapes, we try to keep imposed loads acting through the centroid. Shear loads that...
Most engineering students can readily find the centroid of a shape, where the elastic neutral axes cross. This concept is thoroughly covered in any introductory Mechanics of Materials or Deformable...