Bladed Knowledge Base

Shear stiffness of tower members
Category: Structural dynamics

Problem
How does Bladed calculate the cross sectional shear stiffness of support structure members based on the geometry? 
Solution

Bladed uses the assumption that the "effective shear area" is 0.5 x "cross-sectional area", which is the standard assumption for a thin walled pipe section.

The cross sectional stiffness = "shear modulus" x "effective shear area"





Keywords tower support structure shear stiffness