How To Build Better Rockets By Crumpling Beer Cans

Knowing more about how a metal tube crumples might improve the design of everything from beer cans to space rockets. Now scientists find that poking such cylinders in the side could help predict when they might buckle from weights or pressure from above. A long-standing challenge in mechanical engineering is finding out how much weight or pressure a tube or any other structure with thin walls can bear without fear of collapsing. The stronger that researchers can make these structures, the safer ...