Design and assessment of adjustable telescopic props with innovative shape

The design of optimal props (in terms of weight) that conform to the European standard EN 1065 is not a straightforward task. For some classes of props, when the collapse mechanism is the failure of the prop base, large tubes thicknesses or large tubes diameters are required to keep the failure mechanism under control, although the substantial strength of the tubes remains unexploited. This observation motivates the seek for innovative shapes. The present work aims at showing a new proposal of efficient design of props in agreement with the standard EN 1065. Theoretical and numerical analysis are carried out in order to identify the effective gain of weight of this new design configuration.