On the Lightweight Characterization of Materials and Structures

This chapter provides different concepts to evaluate the lightweight potential of materials and structures. To characterize solely materials, different ratios of material properties are commonly applied. For this purpose, a typical mechanical property, i.e., the stiffness, yield stress, or tensile strength, is normalized with the mass density. Considering in addition to the material a particular structure, including support and load conditions, the so-called lightweight index or the specific energy absorption can be applied. The different ratios are evaluated for typical engineering materials and simple one-dimensional members, i.e., tensile rods, cantilevered and simply supported beams. At end of this chapter, some instructions are provided on how the concept of the specific energy absorption can be applied to arbitrary three-dimensional problems.