Convention for tension and compression
Convention for tension and compression
(OP)
So I just discovered today that the guys in my office use an opposite sign convention for tensile and compressive member forces. Is it a Canadian thing or perhaps a mechanical thing to refer to tensile member forces as positive? I understand the convention is relative but I think this is the type of thing that can cause Mars landers to end up as smoking wrecks if you are not aware of it ;)






RE: Convention for tension and compression
In most of my applications, tension is membrane tension in a shell or something similar, and as far as I know, the positive for tension is fairly universal there. In the past, I've used some structural analysis software, but was thinking it took tension as positive for structural members also.
A couple of days ago, I was using the beam equations in the AISC green book and then also some out of Roark's Formulas for Stress and Strain. One uses positive deflection as upward, the other downward. And Roark uses tension = positive for circular rings and whatnot.
RE: Convention for tension and compression
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
RE: Convention for tension and compression
RE: Convention for tension and compression
Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services
http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/
RE: Convention for tension and compression
RE: Convention for tension and compression
Otherwise it's handy to add a T or C just to be clear as TLHS mentioned to rem9ve any ambiguity.