Slenderness Ratio

What is Slenderness Ratio?

The ratio of a column's effective length to the radius of gyration of its cross-section, which determines whether it fails by Euler buckling or by simply crushing under compressive stress. Long, thin columns with a high slenderness ratio buckle well before the material itself would ever yield.

The five clues

Engineerdle #40 described Slenderness Ratio with five clues, revealed one at a time from hardest to most direct. Each clue points at a different property of the concept.

1. 01A single number that decides whether a column will crush or buckle.
2. 02It compares a column's length against a property of its cross-section.
3. 03A high value means buckling governs; a low value means crushing does.
4. 04It's the effective length divided by the radius of gyration.
5. 05KL/r — the ratio that determines whether Euler buckling or material yielding controls a column's failure.

More Structural Engineering concepts

• Neutral AxisPuzzle #49
• Moment Distribution MethodPuzzle #35