Relative Rigidity of parts?

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

Sometimes when I need to figure out which of two parts will be more structurally sound, I'll build a test rig w/ the competing parts attached to weights, and see which one bends more. In these experiments i found out that batteries are about the weakest things there are (odd b/c most of the  bttys I've seen are pretty solid).  

Anyway, is there a better way to do this?

Should I make a lengthy study of this and publish the results?

Has someone already gone an pulled all this out of the game engine and put it in a spreadsheet?  (i hope)

 

Edited January 28, 2018 by Brainlord Mesomorph

[FleshJeb]

Someone did this for buoyancy, and I think I recall one for rigidity, but it's been a while.

I would suggest a rig like this. Everything is on rigid attachment except the Oscar. It's deflecting about 1.8m at 7m out for X amount of torque.

The breaking torque from the Oscar .cfg is: "breakingTorque = 50"

Instead of changing the rig for every part and recalculating torque, you may want to offset it to the same position every time, and just increase gravity until it breaks.

I'd also include a scale built out of antennas, offset to known intervals. It will make it easier to read.

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

Never occurred to me to put a needle and a gauge on it an make a meter. 

I just put a bunch of stuff in a row on one long pipe and compare them to each other. As soon as it does the physics drop, you can which ones are strong and which are noodley.

But i really figured this was something where we could pull  real numbers out of the game engine.
 

BTW: last time I did this Structural Tubes were stronger than girder segments and I -beams, now the girders are (rightly) the strongest.  so we do need to update this.

EDIT: wait the meter is unnecessary, ( IRL: it would needed, but in KSP no) the camera is locked to horizontal. You just need to measure the ANGLE (not a length) and the pointer isn't needed b/c the sides of the tank and the I-Beam (and pointer) are parallel.

You just need to compare the IBeam to horizontal 

Edited January 28, 2018 by Brainlord Mesomorph

[FleshJeb]

8 hours ago, Brainlord Mesomorph said:

You just need to compare the IBeam to horizontal 

Oh, duh. Just put a probe core on the lever, and read the pitch in KER/MJ. EDIT: Or the AeroGUI window.

Edited January 29, 2018 by FleshJeb