¶ Dimpling
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Index Entry
Dimpling: Dimpling Effect:
“When a concentrated load is applied to any vertex (towards the center) of any triangulated system it tends to cause a dimpling effect. Beginning with the tetrahedron as the minimum system, as the complexity (frequency) of successive structures increases, the dimpling become progressively more localized. As the dimpling becomes more localized proportionately less force is required to bring it about, i.e., in successively higher frequency systems it takes progressively less and less effort to create a ‘dent.’ The tetrahedron would have to turn itself completely inside out, and as this constitutes a complete change in the entire structure (with no localized effect in evidence) the tetrahedron clearly has the greatest resistance of any structure to externally applied concentrated load. The octahedron dimples in on itself, and the icosahedron, although dimpling locally, does reduce its volume considerably when doing so, implying that it still has a good resistance to concentrated load. The geodesic spheres exhibit ‘very local’ dimpling as the frequency increases, suggesting much less resistance to concentrated loads but a very high resistance to distributed loads.”
¶ Citations
- SYNERGETICS Illustration #97 “Dimpling Effect: Distribution of Load Increases with Frequency.” 1967
