Designing a Balsa Wood Beam: Max Strength, Min Weight

[Struggling]

Hi for school i need to design a balsa wood beam. Winner is judged be strength to weight ratio.

i have searched around and found all the stress and strain values for balsa wood at different densitys etc...

now my dilemma is that i have to use formulas to design this beam before it is built. Iam having trouble getting started.

would anyone be able to point me in the right direction? iam a little confused as to were to begin, so much needs to be taken into consideration such as widths,lengths,density, forces etc etc

and how do i find the beam design that will hold the most amount of force?

beam needs to be 500mm long with 25mm supports on either side. total length 550mm

width and depth no more than 100 mm and the beam is said to have failed once deflection reaches 50mm.

please help thanks

 

[saltydog]

Hi for school i need to design a balsa wood beam. Winner is judged be strength to weight ratio.

i have searched around and found all the stress and strain values for balsa wood at different densitys etc...

now my dilemma is that i have to use formulas to design this beam before it is built. Iam having trouble getting started.

would anyone be able to point me in the right direction? iam a little confused as to were to begin, so much needs to be taken into consideration such as widths,lengths,density, forces etc etc

and how do i find the beam design that will hold the most amount of force?

beam needs to be 500mm long with 25mm supports on either side. total length 550mm

width and depth no more than 100 mm and the beam is said to have failed once deflection reaches 50mm.

please help thanks

Make a beam with a nested architecture: Construct cross-beams to reinforce the length, construct smaller cross-beams which reinforce the smaller cross-beams, make even smaller cross-beams which reinforce the smaller cross-beams. Keep nesting it until you get tired or run into a constraint.