N
Nomad
Guest
Just been playing around with some engineering software that does stress analysis of various materials. I wanted to see how steel, titanium and aluminium compare in various ways. I'm not saying this is especially scientific, or even representative of what would happen with, say, pots and containers made with these materials - I was just curious about how they would fare in some basic comparisons.
The idea was to make a simple test shape and then apply a force to it and see how much it bends (displaces from its shape at rest). The shape I made was 100mm long, 10mm wide, and 2mm thick. It was supported at each end, and the force was applied in the middle. The applied force was 10 Newtons - about 1kg. I then varied the thickness to make other comparisons. The results are below. Thickness and bend are in millimetres, and mass is in grams.
Same Thickness
When the thickness is the same, steel is clearly the strongest - it has the smallest amount of bend. However, it's also much heavier than the others. Aluminium bends the most but weighs the least, with titanium somewhere in the middle for both properties. What happens if we make them all the same weight as the aluminium?
Same Weight As The Lightest
To get the steel and titanium to weigh the same as the aluminium, both have to be made thinner. Now the strength changes dramatically - steel bends the most (9 times as much), followed by titanium (3 times as much). Lets see what happens if we make them all as strong as the steel in the first comparison...
Same Strength As The Strongest
The titanium and aluminium are made thicker to increase their strength: 20% thicker for titanium, and 41% thicker for aluminium. But look at the weights - the titanium is still lighter than the steel, and the aluminium is lighter than either.
The idea was to make a simple test shape and then apply a force to it and see how much it bends (displaces from its shape at rest). The shape I made was 100mm long, 10mm wide, and 2mm thick. It was supported at each end, and the force was applied in the middle. The applied force was 10 Newtons - about 1kg. I then varied the thickness to make other comparisons. The results are below. Thickness and bend are in millimetres, and mass is in grams.
Same Thickness
Code:
metal thickness bend mass
steel 2 0.031 16.0
titanium 2 0.054 9.3
aluminium 2 0.085 5.4When the thickness is the same, steel is clearly the strongest - it has the smallest amount of bend. However, it's also much heavier than the others. Aluminium bends the most but weighs the least, with titanium somewhere in the middle for both properties. What happens if we make them all the same weight as the aluminium?
Same Weight As The Lightest
Code:
metal thickness bend mass
steel 0.675 0.77 5.4
titanium 1.16 0.27 5.4
aluminium 2 0.085 5.4To get the steel and titanium to weigh the same as the aluminium, both have to be made thinner. Now the strength changes dramatically - steel bends the most (9 times as much), followed by titanium (3 times as much). Lets see what happens if we make them all as strong as the steel in the first comparison...
Same Strength As The Strongest
Code:
metal thickness bend mass
steel 2 0.031 16.0
titanium 2.4 0.031 11.2
aluminium 2.82 0.031 7.6The titanium and aluminium are made thicker to increase their strength: 20% thicker for titanium, and 41% thicker for aluminium. But look at the weights - the titanium is still lighter than the steel, and the aluminium is lighter than either.
