Your way of looking at the narrow question of strength of materials won't get you into too much trouble, but your back-of-the-envelope calcs won't get you far when you have to deal with the larger structure, and there are many questions to answer.
Structural engineering is interesting enough that I enjoy it, but it's not everyone's cup of tea. If you want to go further, then you really must get a hold of an engineer (or at least a student) and maybe pick up an engineering textbook or two (the student would also be a good source for that).
There's a 2.5" diameter pipe rotating inside a 3" diameter pipe at the base of my tower. Bolted into the concrete through an angle. Welded together. Easy to make. Could pull a dumptruck out of quicksand. You did the same amount of work, but it won't get a VW out of a ditch.
Reducing size and weight is valuable in aircraft. Please reassure me that you don't want your tower to fly away!
Steven Fahey
[ Parent ]
