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robbievanleeuwen / section-properties

Analysis of an arbitrary cross-section in python using the finite element method.
https://sectionproperties.rtfd.io
MIT License
412 stars 92 forks source link

Add plastic stress analysis #409

Closed Ricyteach closed 4 months ago

Ricyteach commented 5 months ago

Hi I just discovered this library and it's fantastic, great work. Plan to use it on a project tomorrow (Thursday); I am analyzing the X section properties of some aluminum extrusions (creating load span tables for the rails of a solar panel racking system; an image is attached in case anyone is interested).

Feature Request

I am not sure how complicated it would be to add this feature, but it would be great to be able to analyze plastic behavior of a cross section under a given set of loads, and not just linear elastic behavior. I'm especially interested in pure bending for my purposes. However I suppose to be added to the library, all forms of stress would need to be considered, and not just a pure bending moment.

The main reason for this is the manufacturer wants to squeeze as much performance out of these rails as possible even if it means permanent deformation, which could be acceptable for an extreme scenario like a hurricane.

Thanks for the consideration!

image

github-actions[bot] commented 5 months ago

Thanks for opening your first issue in sectionproperties :raised_hands: Pull requests are always welcome :wink:

robbievanleeuwen commented 4 months ago

Hi @Ricyteach, thanks for the kind words and I am happy to hear that you are finding sectionproperties useful!

I have previously decided to keep sectionproperties as a linear-elastic package and thus this feature would be outside it's scope. Have a look at the discussion in #286 for more info. If you wanted to pursue this, I would suggest creating a separate library that imports sectionproperties and extends it for non-linear/plastic analysis. This has been done before with concreteproperties, which uses sectionproperties to solve non-linear reinforced and prestressed concrete problems. You could have a look over this library to see how I've done it, it's no small undertaking, but I'm sure there are always better/faster/more efficient ways to do things!

Ricyteach commented 4 months ago

Cool, I agree it's good to stick to the project scope.

I'll have a look at the other project. Thanks!