StructuralUnits
Introduction
This is a package for Structural Engineers in the US. It is a small package that extends the Unitful.jl package. It exports a few units and changes promotion defaults in the Unitful package. It re-exports Unitful and UnitfulLatexify, so there is no need to call Using Unitful.
Defined Units
Below are a few tables that specify the constants that are exported by the package. These constants can then be used throughout your project.
Length
| Constant/Variable | Unitful Definition |
|---|---|
ft |
u"ft" |
inch |
u"inch" |
Force
| Constant/Variable | Unitful Definition |
|---|---|
kip |
1000u"lbf" |
Stress
| Constant/Variable | Unitful Definition |
|---|---|
ksi |
1*kip/(1*inch^2) |
ksf |
1*kip/(1*ft^2) |
Density
| Constant/Variable | Unitful Definition |
|---|---|
kcf |
1*kip/(1*ft^3) |
pcf |
1*u"lbf"/(1*ft^3) |
Linear Weight
| Constant/Variable | Unitful Definition |
|---|---|
klf |
1*kip/(1*ft) |
plf |
1*u"lbf"/(1*ft) |
Speed
| Constant/Variable | Unitful Definition |
|---|---|
mph |
1*u"mi"/(1*u"hr") |
Angle
| Constant/Variable | Unitful Definition |
|---|---|
° |
u"°" |
Promotion
In Unitful, certain dimensions can automatically promote to a preferred set of units. This package changes those settings to be more in line with prefferences of structural engineers in the US. Note that autopromotion happens mainly with addition or subtraction (not multiplication). Below are a few simple examples of promotion:
Promotion through addition
Based on the StructuralUnits preferences, ft is the preferred unit for a length dimension:
julia> 1.0ft + 6.0inch
1.5 ftYou can see how adding dimensions with two different units will auto promote to the preferred unit (the preferred unit for Unitful is m so this has been changed to ft for this package).
Promotion through multiplication
julia> 1.0ft*6.0inch
6.0 ft inchYou can see how multiplying dimensions with different units does not automatically promote the units to the preferred unit for that specific dimension (which in this case would be an area dimension that was derived in this package). You can however promote this manually using the |> operator.
julia> 1.0ft*6.0inch |> ft^2
0.5 ft^2Preferred Units for Promotion
| Below is a list of the preferred units to promote to when auto promotion occurs. | Dimension | Unitful Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Length | ft |
|
| Area | inch^2 |
|
| Volume | ft^3 |
|
| Force | kip |
|
| Stress | ksi |
|
| Density | kcf |
|
| Moment | kip*ft |
|
| UDLoad | klf |
Contribution
This package may be somewhat difficult to contribute too given the fact that it is highly opinionated for its preferred units. This tool will mainly be used internally, so prefferences could change as we start to use the package more. Feel free to view the source code as well as use the package if it fits your needs. The source code is less than 100 lines of code, so I am sure you can use it to create your own units package if needed.