Flitch beam Length

[chrisbarber]

Hi,
I am new to this forum and have had superbeam for a couple of years now. What i was wondering is if it was possible to specify a flitch length rather than it being the length of the timer by default. E.g. timber beam 3m long flitch to be 2m through the c/c.
Thanks
Chris

[Tony Bryer]

No, this sort of flitch beam cannot be checked using SuperBeam. For an authoritative consideration of this sort of beam see Flitch beams with short length steel plates, by Dr Satish Desai in the Structural Engineer 18 June 2002. In the example beam considered in the article, using a short plate instead of a full-length one reduced the load capacity of the considered beam by 58%.