Eng Solutions

Span Analysis is an Excel spreadsheet capable of analytically calculating bending moment and shear force along a single spanning member or part of a multiple spanning beam, loaded by linearly varying load.
All the information required by the sheet to perform the calculations is the value of the sagging moment and the value of the uniformly distributed load at both ends of the member, and the length of the member. Having typed these values an analytical solution of the bending moment and the shear force diagram are plotted, accompanied with information on the critical points for both graphs. In addition, the values of bending moment and shear force can be exported at the exact point of the user's interest.

It can be used on single spanning structures or members of a continuous beam or a moment resisting frame. The reasons for creating this calculation sheet and its major applications are listed below:

• It can be used as a fast calculator sheet for moment and shear along a member for a preliminary design of beams or slabs.
• Can be used to calculate the fixed end moments ofmembers in order to be used by the Moment Redistribution Method (Cross Method) to export a more sophisticated analytical solution of a multispanning beam or a moment resistant frame with a compatible for this sheet loading.
• Can be used to calculate the points of zero moment or shear along the member, or their values at any seatrain point along the member length, in order to be used fordesign. The form of the input data is especially useful when the output of a model analyzed with the moment distribution method should be used.

This spreadsheet is quite easy to use since all the required data is summarized in five cells. Note that data required cells are colored in sky-blue only. The calculation sheet can be seen in the screen shot below.

You may download the latest version here: Span Analysis v1.0