7 Design Techniques for Reducing Structural Deformations (Stiffness Enhancement Techniques)

Previous chapters have addressed various correlations between design features of structures and their stiffness. While it is rather obvious how to use these correlations for enhancement of the structural stiffness, it is also useful to emphasize some very effective design techniques for stiffness enhancement. This usefulness justifies, in the author's opinion, some inevitable repetitions. In some cases, e.g., Section 7.6 and Appendix 2, issues of stiffness, damping, and mass cannot be separated.

To improve cost-efficiency of stiffness enhancement process, it is important that a breakdown of compliance for the system is performed, computationally (like in Sections 6.3 and 6.4) or by testing (like in Appendix 7). The breakdown allows to select the most compliant (the least stiff) component. Stiffness enhancement of the most compliant components is the most effective and cost-effective way to enhance stiffness of the system.