I'm doing a bit of research for a story, so let me apologize in advance if
this doesn't fit the mandate of your groups. I won't repost if I don't
get an answer. Thank you, though, for your time in advance.

I'm trying to find a formula or a chart that'll help me figure out
average/ideal steel strengths given a bar of a certain diameter. For
instance, how thick of a rod of steel would a person need to keep it from
buckling when a super-human applied a ton of pressure. I realize there
are different types of steel, purities, etc., which is why I thought there
might be a kind of slide-rule-esque chart for figuring X-type for Y-weight
is Z-thickness.

Any help would be appreciated. I've Googled and checked Wikipedia, but
the best they seem to have is related tooling equipment and melting
points, respectively, which is interesting but not what I need. Again,
thank you in advance for your help!

It sounds like you need some basic info on the different ways that steel is
"strong" or not, Andrew. There are people here who will fill you in.

In other words it may sound like you're asking a simple question but you're
not. You could start by telling us what kind of steel shapes you're talking
about (round bars? tubes? I-beams?) and how the load is applied.

Ed Huntress wrote:
It sounds like you need some basic info on the different ways that steel
is "strong" or not, Andrew. There are people here who will fill you in.

Yes. I figured my Googling was being such a dismal failure because of my
lack of knowing the right context in which to search. Thank you for
confirming this. (Seriously, thank you, because that lets me know I need
to research metallurgy in general to learn the basic terms.)


In other words it may sound like you're asking a simple question but
you're not. You could start by telling us what kind of steel shapes
you're talking about (round bars? tubes? I-beams?) and how the load is
applied.

The shape I have in mind is a rectangular frame made up of four solid,
round bars. The longer two of these pipes are six feet, the shorter are
four feet, and it's assumed that the weld points at the corners are equal
in strength to the bars (I'm not sure how that holds up in the real world,
though). The pressure that will be applied comes from a super-human
strapped in the middle, with their limbs attached to the four corners,
trying bend at the waist. I'm assuming the "buckling" as I call it would
most likely happen at the middle on the longer bars, maybe in the shorter
ones.

Mostly I'm trying to figure if the super-human can exert roughly one ton
of pressure at the four corners, how thick would the bars need to be not
to buckle. Steel might not even be the ideal metal for this situation, I
was just hoping to use it as a good enough example to get pointed in the
right direction. Thank you!

--
Andrew Burton
tuglyraisin@aol.com
http://utilitarian.us - A Guide to Esoteric Technology in Paragon City
http://jarodrussell.livejournal.com/ - Take a guess.

I would make a frame from tubes, buckling properties of structural tube
http://www.corusconstruction.com/en/design_and_innovation/structural_design/the_blue_book/axial_&_bending/british_standard_sections/chs_celsius/

Ed Huntress wrote:
It sounds like you need some basic info on the different ways that
steel is "strong" or not, Andrew. There are people here who will fill
you in.

Yes. I figured my Googling was being such a dismal failure because of
my lack of knowing the right context in which to search. Thank you for
confirming this. (Seriously, thank you, because that lets me know I
need to research metallurgy in general to learn the basic terms.)


In other words it may sound like you're asking a simple question but
you're not. You could start by telling us what kind of steel shapes
you're talking about (round bars? tubes? I-beams?) and how the load is
applied.

The shape I have in mind is a rectangular frame made up of four solid,
round bars. The longer two of these pipes are six feet, the shorter are
four feet, and it's assumed that the weld points at the corners are
equal in strength to the bars (I'm not sure how that holds up in the
real world, though). The pressure that will be applied comes from a
super-human strapped in the middle, with their limbs attached to the
four corners, trying bend at the waist. I'm assuming the "buckling" as
I call it would most likely happen at the middle on the longer bars,
maybe in the shorter ones.

Mostly I'm trying to figure if the super-human can exert roughly one ton
of pressure at the four corners, how thick would the bars need to be not
to buckle. Steel might not even be the ideal metal for this situation,
I was just hoping to use it as a good enough example to get pointed in
the right direction. Thank you!

Ed Huntress wrote:
It sounds like you need some basic info on the different ways that steel
is "strong" or not, Andrew. There are people here who will fill you in.

Yes. I figured my Googling was being such a dismal failure because of my
lack of knowing the right context in which to search. Thank you for
confirming this. (Seriously, thank you, because that lets me know I need
to research metallurgy in general to learn the basic terms.)


In other words it may sound like you're asking a simple question but
you're not. You could start by telling us what kind of steel shapes
you're talking about (round bars? tubes? I-beams?) and how the load is
applied.

The shape I have in mind is a rectangular frame made up of four solid,
round bars. The longer two of these pipes are six feet, the shorter are
four feet, and it's assumed that the weld points at the corners are equal
in strength to the bars (I'm not sure how that holds up in the real world,
though). The pressure that will be applied comes from a super-human
strapped in the middle, with their limbs attached to the four corners,
trying bend at the waist. I'm assuming the "buckling" as I call it would
most likely happen at the middle on the longer bars, maybe in the shorter
ones.

Mostly I'm trying to figure if the super-human can exert roughly one ton
of pressure at the four corners, how thick would the bars need to be not
to buckle. Steel might not even be the ideal metal for this situation, I
was just hoping to use it as a good enough example to get pointed in the
right direction. Thank you!

--
Andrew Burton
tuglyraisin@aol.com
http://utilitarian.us - A Guide to Esoteric Technology in Paragon City
http://jarodrussell.livejournal.com/ - Take a guess.

The problem is that the frame could bend, crush, or buckle depending on
how the load is applied.

If the short sides were the hands and the feet, the long sides one hand
and one foot:

If the person tried to do a situp it would be a bending moment, that is
a function of the length of the tube and the section modulus.

If the person tried to just compress either the sides or the ends, it
could buckle or crush. Buckling is when the bar bends like a fishing
rod. Crushing is what an aluminum can does when you hit it on your
forehead. For steel, buckling occurs when the length to diameter ratio
exceeds 89:1

I'm doing a bit of research for a story, so let me apologize in advance
if this doesn't fit the mandate of your groups. I won't repost if I
don't get an answer. Thank you, though, for your time in advance.

I'm trying to find a formula or a chart that'll help me figure out
average/ideal steel strengths given a bar of a certain diameter. For
instance, how thick of a rod of steel would a person need to keep it
from buckling when a super-human applied a ton of pressure. I realize
there are different types of steel, purities, etc., which is why I
thought there might be a kind of slide-rule-esque chart for figuring
X-type for Y-weight is Z-thickness.

Any help would be appreciated. I've Googled and checked Wikipedia, but
the best they seem to have is related tooling equipment and melting
points, respectively, which is interesting but not what I need. Again,
thank you in advance for your help!

--
Andrew Burton
tuglyraisin@aol.com
http://utilitarian.us - A Guide to Esoteric Technology in Paragon City
http://jarodrussell.livejournal.com/ - Take a guess.

I'm doing a bit of research for a story, so let me apologize in advance
if this doesn't fit the mandate of your groups. I won't repost if I
don't get an answer. Thank you, though, for your time in advance.

I'm trying to find a formula or a chart that'll help me figure out
average/ideal steel strengths given a bar of a certain diameter. For
instance, how thick of a rod of steel would a person need to keep it
from buckling when a super-human applied a ton of pressure. I realize
there are different types of steel, purities, etc., which is why I
thought there might be a kind of slide-rule-esque chart for figuring
X-type for Y-weight is Z-thickness.

Any help would be appreciated. I've Googled and checked Wikipedia, but
the best they seem to have is related tooling equipment and melting
points, respectively, which is interesting but not what I need. Again,
thank you in advance for your help!

Here's a link that will give you some flavor of what you're asking.

http://physics.uwstout.edu/statstr/Statics/index.htm

snip ...

That link doesn't seem to be working this morning; here's the whole search
with some alternatives.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22strength+of+material%22&btnG=Search

P.S. What format of work will this be? Book? Comic book/graphics
novel? Movie/animation? (Not that it really matters to the
question you asked, but I'm wondering in what format to expect
to eventually find this?

DoN. Nichols wrote:
P.S. What format of work will this be? Book? Comic book/graphics
novel? Movie/animation? (Not that it really matters to the
question you asked, but I'm wondering in what format to expect
to eventually find this?

Plain text actually, strictly an amateur endeavor. If I can ever pull
all these facts together and understand them, it'll show up in one of
the "Lady Lawful & Doctor Developer" stories here:

http://haven.eyrie.org/~dvandom/ASH/history.html

Thanks for the useful info!