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DIFFERENT TYPES OF LOAD ACTING ON BEAM

We were discussing meaning and importance of shear force and bending moment and types of beams in strength of materials and also some basic concepts of strength of materials in our recent posts. 

Today we will see here the types of load on beam in strength of materials with the help of this post.
First we must have to understand here the meaning and definition of a beam and after that we will see here the various types of loads on beams with the help of this post.

A beam is basically defined as one structural member used to bear the different loads. In structure, beam helps to bear the load and we must have to note it here that there will not be any structure without beams and therefore we must have to understand the various types of beams in strength of materials. 

Beam is usually subjected with vertical load, shear load and also sometimes with horizontal load. We must have to note it here that cross section of a beam will be quite smaller as compared to its length.

Let us see here the various types of loads on beams in strength of materials

A beam is usually horizontal member and load which will be acting over the beam will be usually vertical loads. There are following types of loads as mentioned here and we will discuss each type of load in detail.
  • Point load or concentrated load
  • Uniformly distributed load
  • Uniformly varying load

Point load or concentrated load

Point load or concentrated load, as name suggest, acts at a point on the beam. If we will see practically, point load or concentrated load also distributed over a small area but we can consider such type of loading as point loading and hence such type of load could be considered as point load or concentrated load.

Following figure displayed here indicates the beam AB of length L which will be loaded with point load W at the midpoint of the beam. Load W will be considered here as the point load.

Uniformly distributed load

Uniformly distributed load is the load which will be distributed over the length of the beam in such a way that rate of loading will be uniform throughout the distribution length of the beam. 

Uniformly distributed load is also expressed as U.D.L and with value as w N/m. During determination of the total load, total uniformly distributed load will be converted in to point load by multiplying the rate of loading i.e. w (N/m) with the span of load distribution i.e. L and will be acting over the midpoint of the length of the uniformly load distribution.

Let us consider the following figure, a beam AB of length L is loaded with uniformly distributed load and rate of loading is w (N/m).
Total uniformly distributed load, P = w*L

Uniformly varying load

Uniformly varying load is the load which will be distributed over the length of the beam in such a way that rate of loading will not be uniform but also vary from point to point throughout the distribution length of the beam.

Uniformly varying load is also termed as triangular load. Let us see the following figure, a beam AB of length L is loaded with uniformly varying load.  

We can see from figure that load is zero at one end and increases uniformly to the other end. During determination of the total load, we will determine the area of the triangle and the result i.e. area of the triangle will be total load and this total load will be assumed to act at the C.G of the triangle.
Total load, P = w*L/2

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