Embodied Energy vs Structural Efficiency — 2D

Sustainable design lives in the trade-off between how much energy went into a material and how much structural work that material can safely do. This simulator renders a real cantilever beam — wall-mounted, loaded at the free tip — and computes its bending with the same second-moment-of-area mechanics used in structural engineering: I = bh³/12, deflection δ(x) = F(3Lx² − x³)/(6EI), and bending stress σ(x) = 6F(L−x)/(bh²) at every point along the span, not just at the wall. Switch between structural steel, aluminum, glulam timber, carbon-fiber composite and reinforced concrete to watch the beam's mass, embodied energy, safety factor and eco-efficiency score (allowable load per megajoule of embodied energy) all update live, drag the beam to inspect any point along its length, drag the load stack to feel the load change by hand, and compare every material's eco-efficiency side by side in the bottom panel.