Quote:
Originally Posted by DAYTRIP
If the thickness of the core doubles (and the skins stay the same) the strength goes up 4 times as much. If it triples in thickness it goes up 9 times as much. The key is adhesion to the core to get the most out of it.
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Daytrip- You are on the right track, but the benefit of increasing the thickness of the core is even more dramatic than that. For a given material and load on that material the thing affecting deflection is the stiffness of the structure, Moment of inertia is the engineering term for describing the stiffness of a structure. For a rectangular shape like the cross section of the hatch or core, there is a cubic term on the thickness, not a square term.
Moment of Inertia = [(base) x (height or thickness)3 ] divided by 12
Where is the 3 is a cubic exponent
If the core thickness is doubled, the Moment of Inertia is 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 times greater.
If the core thickness is tripled, the Moment of Inertia is 3 x 3 x 3 = 27 times greater.
So increasing the thickness is a powerful tool. Adding ribs can accomplish the same effect but with less weight.