beam design software

huangyhg

beam design software
i am a mech. engr and i have a client that will require several beam designs in different sizes and loading.
they will all have uniformly distributed loads, that do not extend the full length between simple supports.
also i might have the same in a statically indeterminate (3 supports) arrangement.
i need to calculate stress and deflection. there are enough variations and investigations to make software the best way to go.
i would appreciate any recommendations you guys might have. i probably will not use this again. i will not be designing trusses or complex designs, and would like to spend under $300.
any suggestions. thanks alot in advance!
paul ostand
what design specification will you be using?
this is for an industrial product, not a bridge or other such design so there is no design spec, other than what i have set for my design.
in my case, my initial shot will use about 1/3 sy to achieve deflections within the parameters of my machine.
paul ostand
i located a software package from orand in canada called beam 2d.
does anyone have any experience with this? it looks good.
paul ostand
methinks that you may be slightly over your head imho and you should really consult with a qualified structural engineer.  this exercise is not just about designing and picking suitable beam section, but there are also the connections to consider.
ostand, i know you said that software is the way to go.  but if you look at aisc steel manual it has all the shear moments deflections formulas for all the things you mentioned.  maybe just do a spread sheet so it will be a lot quicker to do different problems.  but if you are going to use it again for other projects then yeah, buy a program.
i use struc calc but they are closer to $500.  but they are cheap to upgrade.  it is really simple to use if you have continuous beam.  i wouldnt buy it if you are going to do trusses or frame though because it wont do that.
there are alot of spreadsheet solvers around ... excelcalcs.com for one, yakpol.net for another.  the solution (even for singly redundant beams) is pretty straight forward, it shouldn't take you long to develop your own spreadsheet (and you'll have the advantage of knowing exactly what everything does (and what assumptions you've built-in)
quote (minorchord2000):
methinks that you may be slightly over your head imho and you should really consult with a qualified structural engineer.  this exercise is not just about designing and picking suitable beam section, but there are also the connections to consider.
i am pretty sure a mechanical engineer can figure that out.  you dont have to be civil/structural to know all that.
ostand
a word of warning, depending on the shape that you are using there may be failure modes you are not used to working with. are you familiar with lateral torsional buckling and local buckling? these are failure phenomena that i personally would want to check.
i am sure that you are capable of determining the moments, shears and axial forces in the   
i tend to agree with minorchord. consultation with a structural engineer is probably advisable.  
what are the unbraced lengths of the beam? if they are overly long, is there a way to provide a brace point?
what kind of support do the reaction points have? can what ever supports the new beams support the load of the unit plus the beam?
how will you connect the new beams to their supports?
these are questions that need to be answered. plugging numbers into a software program with no understanding of what those numbers mean is a shaky way to proceed.
would most of us structural engineers feel its ok to post a question on the mechanical board to the effect of ' i need to size an rtu for a small office, were can i buy a software program to size it for me?'
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