Applications in Structural Engineering
In structural engineering, the two-dimensional radius of gyration is used to describe the distribution of cross sectional area in a column around its centroidal axis. The radius of gyration is given by the following formula
or
where I is the second moment of area and A is the total cross-sectional area. The gyration radius is useful in estimating the stiffness of a column. However, if the principal moments of the two-dimensional gyration tensor are not equal, the column will tend to buckle around the axis with the smaller principal moment. For example, a column with an elliptical cross-section will tend to buckle in the direction of the smaller semiaxis.
It also can be referred to as the radial distance from a given axis at which the mass of a body could be concentrated without altering the rotational inertia of the body about that axis.
In engineering, where people deal with continuous bodies of matter, the radius of gyration is usually calculated as an integral.
Read more about this topic: Radius Of Gyration
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