Engineering >> Civil & Environmental EngineeringDistributed Loadsby Joseph Troescher
Submitted : Spring 2011 The objective of the project was to determine the forces (reaction forces) needed to hold a beam (or bridge) up when it has a given force (a load) pushing down on it. In Civil Engineering it is important to find out how a structure will react under certain loads that are not equally placed upon it. Using a series of equations: FA+FB- ∫w(x)dx=0 [limit from 0 to L] and LFB- ∫w(x) x dx=0 [limit from 0 to L] the engineer can determine if the structure they are building will be strong enough. The equations are used because they explain that the structure is not moving (which is why they are equal to 0). This is used extensively in Structural Engineering but remember, this is a simple problem and engineers encounter problems with much more difficulty. It was discovered that the reaction forces of the beam differ because of the distribution of the load differs. Once the engineers know how much force is applied to the bridge they know what materials must be used or how to make the bridge stronger to support additional loads.
|