pic: Beam Bending Example

[MrForbes]

For the sake of making the discussion even more interesting, how about making several different shapes and sizes of beam, and applying the same (relatively small) load to them and showing them all? For example, you might have rectangular tubing with the load applied to the narrow side, and to the wide side, and round and square tubing, and an I beam, and a channel.

Also it would be nice if you'd give a quick explanation of how to set up the constraints in Inventor so others can do this, as it's not obvious to the novice Inventor user.

[kramarczyk]

So from looking at the previous images I think we can safely conclude that

1. Taking weight out of the sides of a beam is preferable to taking it out of the top and bottom (where load is applied is top).
2. A taller beam carries a load with lower stress and deflection than a wider beam, so if you need to make 'it' stronger make it taller.

New images, just for squirrel

Originally Posted by squirrel

For the sake of making the discussion even more interesting, how about making several different shapes and sizes of beam, and applying the same (relatively small) load to them and showing them all? For example, you might have rectangular tubing with the load applied to the narrow side, and to the wide side, and round and square tubing, and an I beam, and a channel.

2" x 2" aluminum channel open to bottom
1/8" wall
1000 lbf uniform load
2.674 lbm
20318 psi max stress - Gee, why is that so much higher than the others?
.243 in max deflection