Your energy absorption will be primarily elastic, then go plastic as failure occurs. You will need force-distance curves for each resisting element (difficult to derive) and will then have to find the reactions for the combined elastic/plastic system.
I would argue that the specific placement and strength of these things was intended, and that they did their job well. Otherwise, they're just plain ugly and out of place!
The cuts in Electric baseplates are for drainage. They nut both sides of the plate and stand the plates off with no grout. I believe only Sparky's do this.
I thought it was common to hold back some of the design water to allow tempering on site. The truck ticket has to say how much was held back. This should be covered in the specs.
Without asking who the company is, It sounds like they are trying to break into the U.S. underground market. In California? The U.S. tunneling industry is generally made up of a few select contractors who can joint venture for the big jobs. Do you know the company's target market?
I started...
Except for the flat surface requirement, I was thinking of a large spun aluminum disc like the Moon Discs of years ago. The dish shape gives it strength.
That sounds like some kind of a fender system?? And you are looking for the equivalent of the fender reaction? You will have to figure the pipe deflection mechanics to get a force-deflection graph. Then see how much the pipe has to deflect to absorb your energy and determine the resulting...
