How can I calculate the strength of a beer can / soda can?

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    Beer Strength
AI Thread Summary
Calculating the strength of an empty beer or soda can for furniture projects involves understanding the can's structural properties, particularly its wall thickness and cylindrical shape. While experimental results suggest a can can hold around 52 kg, deriving a formula for strength is challenging due to its geometry. The discussion explores whether the strength of multiple cans can be additive when arranged together, questioning if two cans can support a total of 100 kg. Suggestions include treating the can as a hollow cylinder and looking into relevant engineering formulas for hollow tubes. Accurate calculations will depend on the specific design and arrangement of the cans used.
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Homework Statement


I am doing a project which involves making furniture out of beer/soda cans but I need to do some calculations for it.
I know the can can hold around 52 Kg or even more based on experimental results but is there any way to find out with some formulas?
I found it tricky because of the shape of the can...

Edit: The cans are empty.

Homework Equations


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The Attempt at a Solution


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Last edited:
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Mihai Ilie said:

Homework Statement


I am doing a project which involves making furniture out of beer/soda cans but I need to do some calculations for it.
I know the can can hold around 52 Kg or even more based on experimental results but is there any way to find out with some formulas?
I found it tricky because of the shape of the can...

Edit: The cans are empty.

Homework Equations


-

The Attempt at a Solution


-
What question are you asking?

What have you tried?
 
I am asking if there is any way to calculate the strength of a empty beer / soda can based on the thickness of the wall or shape or something.

I tried looking for formulas for hollow tubes because I thought it would be similar but I couldn't get anything.

If there is no solution to this, I can consider for example that the can is a cylinder which can hold 50kg and add more cylinders next to each other in a square shape and try to determine the distributed weight they can all hold. Does the weight it can hold stack with each cylinder I add, like two cylinders can hold 100kg since one holds 50kg?
Are there any calculations I can do for that?
 
Mihai Ilie said:
I am asking if there is any way to calculate the strength of a empty beer / soda can based on the thickness of the wall or shape or something.

I tried looking for formulas for hollow tubes because I thought it would be similar but I couldn't get anything.

If there is no solution to this, I can consider for example that the can is a cylinder which can hold 50kg and add more cylinders next to each other in a square shape and try to determine the distributed weight they can all hold. Does the weight it can hold stack with each cylinder I add, like two cylinders can hold 100kg since one holds 50kg?
Are there any calculations I can do for that?
The title of the thread has the word "resistance". Strength would be a better word. Also, I see that you're new here: You should always include all pertinent information in the body of the Original Post of a tread, no matter what is included in the title.

By the way; Welcome to PF !
 
SammyS said:
The title of the thread has the word "resistance". Strength would be a better word. Also, I see that you're new here: You should always include all pertinent information in the body of the Original Post of a tread, no matter what is included in the title.

By the way; Welcome to PF !

Alright, thank you for the info. :D
 
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