design a car to be build by balsa wood trusses, the car has to be with in a specific dimension, calculations of forces on members and nodes using method of joints need to be done and failure analysis. A scale balsa wood model will be built and tested in order to compare with the predicted load capacity of the chassis.
Limited material quantities will be issued. Design a truss framework having maximum load capacity/minimum weight (see 2.12) with the loads at the
positions shown in Figure 1. The two truss sides are joined by cross-members that must be perpendicular to
the truss and whose mass is to be accounted for. There must be sufficient cross-members to prevent twisting
of the structure. Use truss analysis to predict the load at which the truss will fail under the testing procedure. Buckling of the framework struts is the most likely failure mode and in order to manage this, you may need
to increase the stiffness of the framework members under compression or reduce their length.
The buckling loads for members under compression may be calculated using the Euler strut buckling formula. I have the balsa wood characteristics and quantites