Beam (structure)

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A statically determinate beam, bending (sagging) under an evenly distributed load. A beam is a horizontal structural element that is capable of withstanding load primarily by resisting bending. The bending force induced into the material of the beam as a result of the external loads, own weight, span and external reactions to these loads is called a bending moment.

Contents
[hide]

1 Overview 2 Structural characteristics

2.1 Moment of inertia 2.2 Stress in beams

3 General shapes 4 See also 5 Further reading 6 External links

[edit] Overview
Beams generally carry vertical gravitational forces but can also be used to carry horizontal loads (i.e., loads due to an earthquake or wind). The loads carried by a beam are transferred to columns, walls, or girders, which then transfer the force to adjacent structural compression members. In light frame construction the joists rest on the beam.

Beams are characterized by their profile (the shape of their cross-section), their length, and their material. In contemporary construction, beams are typically made of steel, reinforced concrete, or wood. One of the most common types of steel beam is the I-beam or wide-flange beam (also known as a "universal beam" or, for stouter sections, a "universal column"). This is commonly used in steel-frame buildings and bridges. Other common beam profiles are the C-channel, the hollow structural section beam, the pipe, and the angle.

[edit] Structural characteristics

[edit] Moment of inertia
Main article: Moment of inertia The moment of inertia of an object about a given axis describes how difficult it is to change its angular motion about that axis. Therefore, it encompasses not just how much mass the object has overall, but how far each bit of mass is from the axis. The farther out the object's mass is, the more rotational inertia the object has, and the more force is required to change its rotation rate.

Diagram of stiffness of a simple square beam (A) and universal beam (B). The universal beam flange sections are three times further apart than the solid beam's upper and lower halves. The second moment of inertia of the universal beam is nine times that of the square beam of equal cross section (universal beam web ignored for simplification)

[edit] Stress in beams

Internally, beams experience compressive, tensile and shear stresses as a result of the loads applied to them. Typically, under gravity loads, the original length of the beam is slightly reduced to enclose a smaller radius arc at the top of the beam, resulting in compression, while the same original beam length at the bottom of the beam is slightly stretched to enclose a larger radius arc, and so is under tension. The same original length of the middle of the beam, generally halfway between the top and bottom, is the same as the radial arc of bending, and so it is under neither compression nor tension, and defines the neutral axis (dotted line in the beam figure).

Above the supports, the beam is exposed to shear stress. There are some reinforced concrete beams in which the concrete is entirely in compression with tensile forces taken by steel tendons. These beams are known as prestressed concrete beams, and are fabricated to produce a compression more than the expected tension under loading conditions. High strength steel tendons are stretched while the beam is cast over them. Then, when the concrete has cured, the tendons are slowly released and the beam is immediately under eccentric axial loads. This eccentric loading creates an internal moment, and, in turn, increases the moment carrying capacity of the beam. They are commonly used on highway bridges. The primary tool for structural analysis of beams is the EulerBernoulli beam equation. Other mathematical methods for determining the deflection of beams include "method of virtual work" and the "slope deflection method". Engineers are interested in determining deflections because the beam may be in direct contact with a brittle material such as glass. Beam deflections are also minimized for aesthetic reasons. A visibly sagging beam, even if structurally safe, is unsightly and to be avoided. A stiffer beam (high modulus of elasticity and high second moment of area) produces less deflection. Mathematical methods for determining the beam forces (internal forces of the beam and the forces that are imposed on the beam support) include the "moment distribution method", the force or flexibility method and the direct stiffness method.

[edit] General shapes

Most beams in reinforced concrete buildings have rectangular cross sections, but the most efficient cross section for a simply supported beam is an I or H section. Because of the parallel axis theorem and the fact that most of the material is away from the neutral axis, the second moment of area of the beam increases, which in turn increases the stiffness. An I-beam is only the most efficient shape in one direction of bending: up and down looking at the profile as an I. If the beam is bent side to side, it functions as an H where it is less efficient. The most efficient shape for both directions in 2D is a box (a square shell) however the most efficient shape for bending in any direction is a cylindrical shell or tube. But, for unidirectional bending, the I or wide flange beam is superior.[citation needed] Efficiency means that for the same cross sectional area (volume of beam per length) subjected to the same loading conditions, the beam deflects less. Other shapes, like L (angles), C (channels) or tubes, are also used in construction when there are special requirements.

I-beam
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(Redirected from H-beam) Jump to: navigation, search For the text cursor of a graphical computer user interface, see Cursor (computers). For the night club, see I-Beam (nightclub).

This I-beam is used to support the first floor of a house.

I-beams, also known as H-beams, W-beams (for "wide flange"), rolled steel joist (RSJ), or double-T (especially in Polish, Spanish and German) are beams with an I- or H-shaped crosssection. The horizontal elements of the "I" are flanges, while the vertical element is the web.
The web resists shear forces while the flanges resist most of the bending moment experienced by the beam. Beam theory shows that the I-shaped section is a very efficient form for carrying both bending and shear loads in the plane of the web. On the other hand, the cross-section has a reduced capacity in the transverse direction, and is also inefficient in carrying torsion, for which hollow structural sections are often preferred.

Contents
[hide]

1 Overview 2 Design

2.1 Design for bending 2.2 Issues

3 Wide-flange steel materials and rolling processes (U.S.) 4 Designation and terminology

4.1 European standard beams IPE 4.2 European wide flange beams HEA and HEB

5 Cellular Beams 6 History 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

[edit] Overview

Typical cross-sections of I-beams. There are two standard I-beam forms:

Rolled I-beam, formed by hot rolling, cold rolling or extrusion (depending on material). Plate girder, formed by welding (or occasionally bolting or riveting) plates.

I-beams are commonly made of structural steel but may also be formed from aluminium or other materials. A common type of I-beam is the rolled steel joist (RSJ) - sometimes incorrectly
rendered as reinforced steel joist. British and European standards also specify Universal Beams (UBs) and Universal Columns (UCs). These sections have parallel flanges, as opposed to the varying thickness of RSJ flanges. UCs have equal or near-equal width and depth, while UBs are significantly deeper than they are wide.

I-beams engineered from wood with fiberboard and/or laminated veneer lumber are also
becoming increasingly popular in construction, especially residential, as they are both lighter and less prone to warping than solid wooden joists. However there has been some concern as to their rapid loss of strength in a fire if unprotected.

[edit] Design

Illustration of a vibrating I-beam.

I-beams are widely used in the construction industry and are available in a variety of standard sizes. Tables are available to allow easy selection of a suitable steel I-beam size for a given applied load. I-beams may be used both as beams and as columns. I-beams may be used both on their own, or acting compositely with another material, typically
concrete. Design may be governed by any of the following criteria:

deflection - the stiffness of the I-beam will be chosen to minimise deformation vibration - the stiffness and mass are chosen to prevent unacceptable vibrations, particularly in settings sensitive to vibrations, such as offices and libraries bending failure by yielding - where the stress in the cross section exceeds the yield stress bending failure by lateral torsional buckling - where a flange in compression tends to buckle sideways or the entire cross-section buckles torsionally bending failure by local buckling - where the flange or web is so slender as to buckle locally local yield - caused by concentrated loads, such as at the beam's point of support shear failure - where the web fails. Slender webs will fail by buckling, rippling in a phenomenon termed tension field action, but shear failure is also resisted by the stiffness of the flanges buckling or yielding of components - for example, of stiffeners used to provide stability to the I-beam's web.

[edit] Design for bending

The largest stresses (xx) in a beam under bending are in the locations farthest from the neutral axis. A beam under bending sees high stresses along the axial fibers that are farthest from the neutral axis. To prevent failure, most of the material in the beam must be located in these regions. Comparatively little material is needed in the area close to the neutral axis. This observation is the basis of the I-beam cross-section; the neutral axis runs along the center of the web which can be relatively thin and most of the material can be concentrated in the flanges. The ideal beam is the one with the least cross-sectional area (and hence requiring the least material) needed to achieve a given section modulus. Since the section modulus depends on value the moment of inertia , an efficient beam must have most of its material located as far from the neutral axis as possible. The farther a given amount of material is from the neutral axis, the larger is the section modulus and hence a larger bending moment can be resisted. When designing a symmetric I-beam to resist stresses due to bending the usual starting point is the required section modulus. If the allowable stress is max and the maximum expected bending moment is Mmax, then the required section modulus is given by[1]

where I is the moment of inertia of the beam cross-section and c is the distance of the top of the beam from the neutral axis (see beam theory for more details). For a beam of cross-sectional area a and height h, the ideal cross-section would have half the area at a distance h / 2 above the cross-section and the other half at a distance h / 2 below the cross-section[1] For this cross-section

However, these ideal conditions can never be achieved because material is needed in the web for physical reasons, including buckling. For wide-flange beams, the section modulus is approximately

which is superior to that achieved by rectangular beams and circular beams.

[edit] Issues
Though I-beams are excellent for unidirectional bending in a plane parallel to the web, they do not perform as well in bidirectional bending. These beams also show little resistance to twisting and undergo sectional warping under torsional loading. For torsion dominated problems, box beams and other types of stiff sections perform better.

[edit] Wide-flange steel materials and rolling processes (U.S.)

Rusty riveted steel I-beam In the United States, the most commonly mentioned I-beam is the wide-flange (W) shape. These beams have flanges in which the planes are nearly parallel. Other Ibeams include American Standard (designated S) shapes, in which flange surfaces

are not parallel, and H-piles (designated HP), which are typically used as pile foundations. Wide-flange shapes are available in grade ASTM A992,[2] which has generally replaced the older ASTM grades A572 and A36. Ranges of yield strength:

A36: 36,000 psi (250 MPa) A572: 42,00060,000 psi (290410 MPa), but 50,000 psi (340 MPa) is the most common A588: Similar to A572 A992: 50,00065,000 psi (340450 MPa)

Like most steel products, I-beams often contain some recycled content. The American Institute of Steel Construction ("AISC") publishes the "Steel Construction Manual" for designing structures of various shapes. It documents the common approaches, ASD and LRFD, (as of 13th ed.) to creating such designs.

[edit] Designation and terminology

In the United States, steel I-beams are commonly specified using the depth and weight of the beam. For example, a "W10x22" beam is approximately 10 inches (25 cm) in depth (height when the I-beam is standing on its flanges) and weighs approximately 22 lb/ft (33 kg/m). In Canada, steel I-beams are now commonly specified using the depth and weight of the beam in metric terms. For example, a "W250x33" beam is approximately 250 millimetres (10 in) in depth (height when the I-beam is standing on its flanges) and weighs approximately 33 kg/m (22 lb/ft).[3] I-beams are still available in U.S. sizes from many Canadian manufacturers. In India I-beams are designated as ISMB, ISJB, ISLB, ISWB. ISMB :Indian Standard Medium Weight Beam, ISJB : Indian Standard Junior Beams, ISLB : Indian Standard Light Weight Beams, ISWB : Indian Standard Wide Flange Beams. Beams are designated as per respective abbreviated reference followed by the depth of section such as for example ISMB 450, where 450 is the depth of section in millimetres (mm). The dimensions of these beams are classified as per IS:808. (as per BIS) In the United Kingdom, these steel sections are commonly specified with a code consisting of the major dimension (usually the depth)-x-the minor dimension-xthe mass per metre-ending with the section type, all measurements being metric. Therefore a 152x152x23UC would be a column section (UC = universal column) of approximately 152 millimetres (6 in) depth 152 millimetres (6 in) width and weighing 23 kg per meter length.[4] In Australia, these steel sections are commonly referred to as Universal Beams (UB) or Columns (UC). The designation for each is given as the height of the beam, the type (beam or column) and then the unit metre rate (e.g., a 460UB67 is a 460 millimetres (18 in) deep universal beam that weighs 67 kg/m)

[edit] European standard beams IPE

Wide-flange I-beam. Type Beam Flange Web Flange Weight height width thickness thickness (kg/m) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) 80 100 120 140 753 753 762 770 46 55 64 73 263 265 267 268 3.8 4.1 4.4 4.7 11.5 13.2 14.4 15.6 5.2 5.7 6.3 6.9 17 17 21.6 25.4 6.0 8.1 10.4 12.9 137 147 173 196 Crosssection area (cm2) 7.64 10.3 13.2 16.4 175 188 221 251 Moment of inertia in torsion (J) (cm4) 0.70 1.10 1.71 2.54 137.1 161.5 273.6 408.9

IPE 80 IPE 100 IPE 120 IPE 140 IPE 750 x 137 IPE 750 x 147 IPE 750 x 173 IPE 750 x 196

[edit] European wide flange beams HEA and HEB

Type Beam Flange Web Flange Weight height width thickness thickness (kg/m) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) 100 5 8 16.7 Crosssection area (cm2) 21.2 Moment of inertia in torsion (J) (cm4) 5.24

HE 100 A 96

HE 120 A HE 140 A HE 160 A HE 1000 x 415 HE 1000 x 438 HE 1000 x 494 HE 1000 x 584

114 133 152 1020 1026 1036 1056

120 140 160 304 305 309 314

5 5.5 6 26 26.9 31 36

8 8.5 9 46 49 54 64

19.9 24,7 30.4 415 437 494 584

25.3 31.4 38.8 528.7 557.2 629.1 743.7

5.99 8.13 12.19 2714 3200 4433 7230

[edit] Cellular Beams

Cellular beams are the modern version of the traditional castellated beam which results in a beam approximately 40-60% deeper than its parent section. The exact finished depth, cell diameter and cell spacing are flexible. A cellular beam is up to 2.5 times stronger than its parent section and is therefore utilized to create efficient large span constructions.

[edit] History
The method of producing an I-beam, as rolled from a single piece of steel, was patented by Alphonse Halbou of the company Forges de la Providence in 1849.[5] Bethlehem Steel's Bethlehem plant was famous for its Gray mill and the wide-flange shapes that that mill was good at rolling. The steel was hot rolled to make the beams. Bethlehem was a leading supplier of rolled structural steel of various cross-sections in American bridge and skyscraper work of the mid-twentieth century.[6] Today, rolled cross-sections have been partially displaced in such work by fabricated crosssections.