Designing products for load bearing applications can pose a multitude of challenges, so it’s important for a designer to have a “toolbox” of techniques that improve design quality. Designing for stiffness through geometric controls is a top tool in that box.

In order to solve engineering problems related to stiffness, you need to know a few key formulas, including Area Moment of Inertia (Area MOI). The Area MOI formula takes into account the geometry of a part and is used to solve related stiffness and deflection formulas.

You can read more about Area MOI and how to design for stiffness using this calculator tool in this related article.