AN ANALYSIS OF SCALING METHODS FOR STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF SIZE EFFECTS AND NONLINEAR PHENOMENA

Similitude theory helps engineers to investigate system properties and behaviour with scaling methods. The application of such methods reduces the time for product development and production of prototypes. With increasing component size, the impact of size effects and nonlinear phenomena becomes more important in reduced scale model testing. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the scaling methods and their applicability with regard to size effects and nonlinear phenomena as well as a procedure to support the selection of a suitable method for the scaling task of structures.