JULY 2016 Beam Support Reactions There have been a number of Factsheets recently that have dealt with the technical aspects of timber member design such as load widths and load areas. The load widths and areas can be entered into software which will work out the member size as well as what the support reactions are. But what if you want to know how much of a load is put onto each support of a beam without relying on software? Below are a number of common single span scenarios which give you formulae for the proportion of load transferred to each support. Note that load transfer to supports is cumulative. This means you can break down a complex beam into individual loads, work out the proportion to the required support for each individual load and then add these together for the total load on the support. The other important fact is that the sum of the forces must be in equilibrium. The combination of the forces acting on the beam and all the support reactions must be zero. So for a beam with two supports once you have worked out the proportion of load onto one support you know that … Continue reading Beam Support Reactions