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RWTHx: Lightweight Design

Learn the fundamental principles and rules of lightweight design. Deepen your understanding of how structures work and get a first insight on nonlinear calculation methods and lightweight design algorithms.

6 weeks
8–10 hours per week
Self-paced
Progress at your own speed
Free
Optional upgrade available

There is one session available:

After a course session ends, it will be archivedOpens in a new tab.
Starts Mar 19
Ends Dec 11

About this course

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This course will introduce you to lightweight design and its goals. You will learn basic rules for weight optimization of a structure on a material and structural level. The important aspect of cost management in the process of light weight design is discussed. You will get a deeper understanding of how structures work and how they are designed regarding lightweight optimum.

To get the most out of your time the course is subdivided into six weeks, each consists of lectures and exercises. During lectures, you will get all the theoretical background of lightweight design. Exercises will merge your theoretical knowledge with the practical use of calculation methods.

You will learn how to exploit the full capacity of structures by considering nonlinearities, such as plasticity or stability. Different instability problems such as Euler buckling, lateral torsional buckling and lateral buckling, will be discussed in detail. Another aspect which must not be neglected are the shear stresses due to shear force or torsion in thin-walled structures.

The course concludes with the analysis of more complex structures and the introduction to calculation methods which make the design of such complex structures relatively easy. Therefore, we highly recommend you to attend to this course.

At a glance

  • Institution: RWTHx
  • Subject: Engineering
  • Level: Intermediate
  • Prerequisites:

    Basic knowledge of Engineering Mechanics

  • Language: English
  • Video Transcript: English
  • Associated skills:Shear (Sheet Metal), Buckling, Cost Management, Mathematical Optimization, Calculations

What you'll learn

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  • The fundamental principles and rules of lightweight design
  • A deeper understanding of how structures work
  • A first insight in the nonlinear calculation methods and lightweight design algorithms
  • The ability to make the right decisions in the early phase of future product developments

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