Embodied Energy vs Structural Efficiency

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, tip deflection δ = FL³/(3EI), and maximum bending stress σ = 6FL/(bh²). 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, while the beam itself visibly sags along its true deflection curve.