Page:EB1911 - Volume 04.djvu/575

 The shore arms are 147 ft. span, the river arms 105 ft., and the suspended girder 80 ft., the total distance between anchor piers being 584 ft. The floor beams, floor and railing are of timber. The compression members are of timber, except the struts and bottom chord panels next the river piers, which are of steel. The tension members are of iron and the pins of steel. The chord blocks and post shoes are of cast-iron.

63.

33. Graphic Method of finding the Stresses in Braced Structures.—Fig. 65 shows a common form of bridge truss known as a Warren girder, with lines indicating external forces applied to the joints; half the load carried between the two lower joints next the piers on either side is directly carried by the abutments. The sum of the two upward vertical reactions must clearly be equal to the sum of the loads. The lines in the diagram represent the directions of a series of forces which must all be in equilibrium; these lines may, for an object to be explained in the next paragraph, be conveniently named by the letters in the spaces which they separate instead of by the method usually employed in geometry. Thus we shall call the first inclined line on the left hand the line AG, the line representing the first force on the top left-hand joint AB, the first horizontal member at the top left hand the line BH, &c; similarly each point requires at least three letters to denote it; the top first left-hand joint may be called ABHG, being the point where these four spaces meet. In this method of lettering, every enclosed space must be designated by a letter; all external forces must be represented by lines outside the frame, and each space between any two forces must receive a distinctive letter; this method of lettering was first proposed by O. Henrici and R. H. Bow (Economics of Construction), and is convenient in applying the theory of reciprocal figures to the computation of stresses on frames.

64.

34. Reciprocal Figures.—J. Clerk Maxwell gave (Phil. Mag. 1864) the following definition of reciprocal figures:—"Two plane figures are reciprocal when they consist of an equal number of lines so that corresponding lines in the two figures are parallel, and corresponding lines which converge to a point in one figure form a closed polygon in the other."

Let a frame (without redundant members), and the external forces which keep it in equilibrium, be represented by a diagram constituting one of these two plane figures, then the lines in the other plane figure or the reciprocal will represent in direction and magnitude the forces between the joints of the frame, and, consequently, the stress on each member, as will now be explained.

Reciprocal figures are easily drawn by following definite rules, and afford therefore a simple method of computing the stresses on members of a frame.

The external forces on a frame or bridge in equilibrium under those forces may, by a well-known proposition in statics, be represented by a closed polygon, each side of which is parallel to one force, and represents the force in magnitude as well as in direction. The sides of the polygon may be arranged in any order, provided care is taken so to draw them that in passing round the polygon in one direction this direction may for each side correspond to the direction of the force which it represents.

65.

This polygon of forces may, by a slight extension of the above definition, be called the reciprocal figure of the external forces, if the sides are arranged in the same order as that of the joints on which they act, so that if the joints and forces be numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, &c., passing round the outside of the frame in one direction, and returning at last to joint 1, then in the polygon the side representing the force 2 will be next the side representing the force 1, and will be followed by the side representing the force 3, and so forth. This polygon falls under the definition of a reciprocal figure given by Clerk Maxwell, if we consider the frame as a point in equilibrium under the external forces.

Fig. 66 shows a frame supported at the two end joints, and loaded at each top joint. The loads and the supporting forces are indicated by arrows. Fig. 67a shows the reciprocal figure or polygon for the external forces on the assumption that the reactions are slightly inclined. The lines in fig. 67 a, lettered in the usual manner, correspond to the forces indicated by arrows in fig. 66, and lettered according to Bow’s method. When all the forces are vertical, as will be the case in girders, the polygon of external forces will be reduced to two straight lines, fig. 67 b, superimposed and divided so that the length AX represents the load AX, the length AB the load AB, the length YX the reaction YX, and so forth. The line XZ consists of a series of lengths, as XA, AB DZ, representing the loads taken in their order. In subsequent diagrams the two reaction lines will, for the sake of clearness, be drawn as if slightly inclined to the vertical.

If there are no redundant members in the frame there will be only two members abutting at the point of support, for these two members will be sufficient to balance the reaction, whatever its direction may be; we can therefore draw two triangles, each having as one side the reaction YX, and having the two other sides parallel to these two members; each of these triangles will represent a polygon of forces in equilibrium at the point of support. Of these two triangles, shown in fig. 67 c, select that in which the letters X and Y are so placed that (naming the apex of the triangle E) the lines XE and YE are the lines parallel to the two members of the same name in the frame (fig. 66). Then the triangle YXE is the reciprocal figure of the three lines YX, XE, EY in the frame, and represents the three forces in equilibrium at the point YXE of the frame. The direction of YX, being a thrust upwards, shows the direction in which we must go round the triangle YXE to find the direction of the two other forces; doing this we find that the force XE must act down towards the point YXE, and the force EY away from the same point. Putting arrows on the frame diagram to indicate the direction of the forces, we see that the member EY must pull and therefore act as a tie, and that the member XE must push and act as a strut. Passing to the point XEFA we find two known forces, the load XA acting downwards, and a push from the strut XE, which, being in compression, must push at both ends, as indicated by the arrow, fig. 66. The directions and magnitudes of these two forces are already drawn (fig. 67 a) in a fitting position to represent part of the polygon of forces at XEFA; beginning with the upward thrust EX, continuing down XA, and drawing AF parallel to AF in the frame we complete the polygon by drawing EF parallel to EF in the frame. The point F is determined by the intersection of the two lines, one beginning at A, and the other at E. We then have the polygon of forces EXAF, the reciprocal figure of the lines meeting at that point in the frame, and representing the forces at the point EXAF; the direction of the forces on EH and XA being known determines the direction of the forces due to the elastic reaction of the members AF and EF, showing AF to push as a strut, while EF is a tie. We have been guided in the selection of the particular quadrilateral adopted by the rule of arranging the order of the sides so that the same letters indicate corresponding sides in the diagram of the frame and its reciprocal. Continuing the construction of the diagram in the same way, we arrive at fig. 67 d as the complete reciprocal figure of the frame and forces upon it, and we see that each line in the reciprocal figure measures the stress on the corresponding member in the frame, and that the polygon of forces acting at any point, as IJKY, in the frame is represented by a polygon of the same name in the reciprocal