Nick Jackson
15th December 2008, 08:37 PM
Dear Tony
Timber beams frequently require padstones, especially large oak sections in stone rubble walls. (I do a lot of these)
Currently I can only calculate a padstone or bearer for a timber beam by switching to a steel beam and then cutting and pasting the bearing deatils from the design window.
It really would be of great benefit to be able to determine the required padstone for a timber beam.
I would also like to see the addition of a timber bearer option to compliment padstones. Here the bearing calculations would include compression perp to the grain of the bearer.
I would like to be able to specify a timber bearer for a steel beam as well as for a timber beam. Again, this is a detail that frequently crops up in my work. For example, a steel beam in line with joists in a ceiling requires a padstone to spread the load in a stone rubble wall. The padstone is exposed spoiling the effect of the neatly pointed stonework. Using an oak bearer is far more visually appealing.
This thread of thought extends to the bearings under a beam. Currently you do not check bearing stress in the beam. For example, reaction R1 = 10kN and bearing area is 100 x 30mm, bearing stress is 3.33N/mm2 which would be way over the top for most timbers. Users could be asked to enter the length of the bearing or the program could state a minimum bearing length.
I know that a competent engineer will always address these issues but I can't help feeling that aside from the extra work appending your reports manually, it all looks a bit messy in the document.
Kind regards
Nick
Timber beams frequently require padstones, especially large oak sections in stone rubble walls. (I do a lot of these)
Currently I can only calculate a padstone or bearer for a timber beam by switching to a steel beam and then cutting and pasting the bearing deatils from the design window.
It really would be of great benefit to be able to determine the required padstone for a timber beam.
I would also like to see the addition of a timber bearer option to compliment padstones. Here the bearing calculations would include compression perp to the grain of the bearer.
I would like to be able to specify a timber bearer for a steel beam as well as for a timber beam. Again, this is a detail that frequently crops up in my work. For example, a steel beam in line with joists in a ceiling requires a padstone to spread the load in a stone rubble wall. The padstone is exposed spoiling the effect of the neatly pointed stonework. Using an oak bearer is far more visually appealing.
This thread of thought extends to the bearings under a beam. Currently you do not check bearing stress in the beam. For example, reaction R1 = 10kN and bearing area is 100 x 30mm, bearing stress is 3.33N/mm2 which would be way over the top for most timbers. Users could be asked to enter the length of the bearing or the program could state a minimum bearing length.
I know that a competent engineer will always address these issues but I can't help feeling that aside from the extra work appending your reports manually, it all looks a bit messy in the document.
Kind regards
Nick