hi all,
there are a number of methods use to stiffen a flat sheemetal panel such as ribbing, crossbraking etc. curious to know what you use to increase the stiffeness of the panel w/o adding a significant amount of material/and or mass.
looking forward to your suggestions.
best,
dave
the panel is about 2 ft x 7ft, minimizing mass is important as it is directly related to cost. the panel will be loaded shear and compression along the short axis.
David, I would suggest you to the stiffening feature and run a quick simulation study to verify the strength
In a previous life, I worked for a structural glazing/cladding firm. They would often spot-weld an angle, tee or top-hat section, or use an adhesive if appearance was an issue.
Even bonding a sheet of rigid insulation would suffice in some cases.
Good morning David,
I have often used a zig zag pattern of thin gage metal, maybe 1" or 2" high and have those pcs interlock at the centers of the zig zag. This depends greatly on what you are trying to support.
John
thanks for all your feedback. i have been thinking about this and one of my concepts was to dimple the surface sort of like a golf ball BUT each adjacent dimple is in the opposite direction. these dimples could be small or large depending on the size of the sheet. this would uniformly increase the section properties throughout the sheet w/o increasing the base sheet thickness. furthermore, by cold working the dimples, the sheet strength would increase as well. nice thing is the dimples could be formed easily and at a high rate by using roll forming techniques.
after some research into this topic, it turns out a company has already done this and it does indeed stiffen and strengthen the sheet. go figure.
Cross Break comes to mind first and it's a feature in SW
We've used a Dutch bend but that would change mass somewhat
Steve
I believe it'll depend on the area under consideration and application where that part might be used. For e.g. you may use cross break on flat surface and ribs on the bends.