A rigid beam is an engineered structural member that can be designed to be very strong, stiff, and narrow. These attributes make the beam difficult to collapse or compensate for loads when building with them.
Because a rigid beam must have so little flexibility, most designers add additional reinforcements such as concave or convex curvature in the concrete or padding around the steel to add strength. This is important, as some codes require a minimum amount of softness in concrete for buildings.
A rigid beam can also be designed with relatively little roundness or bendability. This helps keep the structural weight concentration high, which is important when there is likely little change in weight during movement of a structure.
This article will discuss some modern rigid beams and how they are supported.
Calculate the moment of inertia of the beam
When you rotate the beam and change the modes, you also change the moment of inertia of the beam. This is because there are two pins at a and w and two wires at b and d that modulate the rotation.
The moment of inertia of a blade is something complicated, but basically, it depends on how much space there is around it and how closely it fits your target. A blade with an extremely small moment of inertia will not turn well enough to be useful.
To calculate the moment of inertia, you need to know both the diameter and length of the beam. You can do this using a caliper or another measuring tool.
You can also use Program/Reference/Reset on your BladeDuel® PRO to do this for you.
Calculate the pin-pin distance
When building a rigid beam, the pin-pin distance is an important part of the calculation. This number determines if the beam will collapse when a load is placed on it.
The pin-pin distance is the distance between two points on the beam that are connected by a thin wire. A point like a nail or pin in the beam represents a positive displacement in space, while a point like a wire represents an imaginary displacement in space.
When measuring this number, remember that you are looking at two points on the same thing – one with no displacement, and one with a positive or imaginary displacement.
Point A in figure below shows what may look like just two points on onebeam:A pointlike nail, representingdisappointment in this article, but we can talk about it later.
Calculate the wire-wire distance
Once you know the approximate wire–wire distance, it is time to calculate the wire length. Using the approximate wire length, find the closest pin at a and w and then add the total length of those pins. This will give you the total length of the rigid beam.
This method can be done for all sorts of beams as there are no restrictions on size or shape.
Determine if there is any twisting in the beam
When the rigid beam is not aligned properly, there can be twisting in it. This happens when one of the pins at the wafer aligns with a wire at a and wires bd and ce.
This causes pressure to build in the beam and it bend towards or away from that point. Once this happens, it is extremely hard to fix.
If you see any signs of twisting in the beam, make sure to check it out immediately! There may be a chance to prevent more bending by switching out one of the pins or finding another one that works better.
Compare results with actual structure
So, how much weight can you expect the rigid beam to hold? As mentioned before, the pin at a and w represents the roof structure. This is what prevents rainwater from leaking into the home.
The roof structure is held in place by six metal pins. Each of these pins has a small hole in it that matches up with one of the six wires.
The equivalent weight of these six pins is one pound, so you can expect them to hold their shape fairly well. As mentioned before, water does not flow through w and bd well, so there are no leaked water bills!
As for a and bc, these represent drainage tiles. Because of their thickness, they also retain moisture better than w and bd does. Due to this retention, they too have retained some water which has flowed through them.
