Extension of Ashby's performance indexes in mixed tension-bending solicitation

Ashby's performance indexes are a fundamental tool for material selection especially for structures lightening. Unfortunately the indexes are available only for simple mechanical solicitation as pure bending or pure tension. For real applications, it is required to have a performance index for combined solicitations. This publication proposes an approach to develop this kind of extended performance index and shows the exploitation in order to compare materials performance in more realistic situations.