Author
Abstract
This paper represents a theoretical investigation of the location of the absolute
maximum bending moment in short simply supported beams under the influence of
several moving point loads. However, for decades it was considered that the absolute
maximum bending moment is determined by positioning the beam center-line midway
between the resultant of the loads and the nearer heavy load. Obviously, other
point loads may also be required to be mirror imaged with the resultant to ensure that
the obtained maximum bending moment is an absolute maximum. This method was
assumed to be working for all spans of simply supported beams without any
limitations.
In this paper it is shown that this traditional method is not always valid. Examples
of short span beams subjected to moving point loads having distance between two
loads exceeding half the length of the beam indicate absolute maximum bending
moments greater than those obtained by the traditional method.
Keywords
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