Thickness of material to support a heavy load

malek340

So if i do not want it to bend, meaning i will calculate y as zero. I do not have the material with me and most importantly do not want it to bend while supporting the load.

afreiden

Everything bends, even if you can't see it with the naked eye.

rcremont

If you have a Mechanics of Solids/Mechanics of Materials book I would refer to them. The type of chapters in those books you are looking for is "Bending of Straight Beams" and "Bending of Flat Plates" or just general beam deflection/thickness theory. But from intuition alone, you are working with a 10 kg load = 22 lbs, considering a common plastic = PVC, I would say that a thickness of 5-8 mm thick depending on the other two dimensions because bending would have to be considered. Any more than 8mm would be excessive.

Travis_King

So? PVC is generally not a cost prohibitive material...A nice thick sheet of PVC will not cost too much more than a relatively thin sheet, and you will get the benefits of both rigidity and strength.

rcremont

@ Travis King

I wasn't considering cost because I understand that PVC is very inexpensive compared to other materials. Anything greater than 8 mm that would be not necessary. The OP wanted an exact number or range to go and purchase otherwise he/she wouldn't have posted and would have just went out and purchased a sheet themselves. Also I am assuming this is for a car or some other environment where size does matter.