Beam support conditions (Boundary Conditions) in practice

koolraj09

Hi all.
Let's say I want to reproduce the support conditions for a beam. The easiest one I could think of is fixed end. Like I hammer an end of the beam into the wall. This represents fixed boundary condition. Likewise can anyone point out how to reproduce Simply supported end condition in practice??
thanks

Studiot

What do you think the answer is?

Fixity is the most difficult to achieve, not the easiest, and complete fixity impossible.

Simply supported is easy, on the other hand, which is why so many designs assume this condition.

jehake12

A single pin connection would not restrict rotation to any significant degree in 2D analysis... which probably meets your criteria for a simply supported beam.

Vadar2012

See this website. It explains it quite well and gives you examples of devices that achieve these boundary conditions.

http://web.mit.edu/4.441/1_lectures/...lecture13.html

koolraj09

Hey thanks Vadar2012!!

Studiot

Please note that the pinned connection described by jehake is not simply supported.

A simple support can only provide a single vertical reaction.

A pin can provide two reactions, vertical and horizontal, but no moment.

Yes that's a good link vadar.

afreiden

"hammer an end of the beam to a wall" does not give me enough information to determine if it is fixed or pinned...

Typical wide flange steel beams (I-beams) used in steel construction are treated as "simply supported" if the web is connected to the vertical element (e.x. column) via a shear tab and the flanges of the beams are NOT welded to the vertical element. Go ahead and image search for "shear tab" to see what I mean.