Bearing plate on brick wall
Bearing plate on brick wall
(OP)
A steel beam, in the plane of a brick wall, bears on the end of that wall. The beam extends 150mm (about 6") onto the wall, but the bearing stress is too high. In an effort to decrease the bearing stress, a bearing plate is added which is 300mm long, thus projecting 150 past the end of the beam. My contention is that this extension does little or nothing to improve the bearing situation.
Opinions?
Opinions?






RE: Bearing plate on brick wall
http://www.nceng.com.au/
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."
RE: Bearing plate on brick wall
RE: Bearing plate on brick wall
http://www.nceng.com.au/
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."
RE: Bearing plate on brick wall
RE: Bearing plate on brick wall
But the bearing stress under the plate would always be triangular - with maximum stress at the end of the wall.
RE: Bearing plate on brick wall
I agree with JAE that the bearing will not be uniform under the 100x150 bearing portion of plate. The projecting portion of plate will deflect upward, creating a gap between plate and wall. Extending the beam 150mm would increase the bearing area to 100x300, but the bearing pressure would still be triangular or trapezoidal. This could be fixed by adding a square or rectangular bar between the beam and plate so that the reaction is more or less centered on the plate.
That still leaves the problem of the beam and wall not being connected. I would be concerned about the stability of the wall and beam. The overall design needs to be reviewed by a competent engineer.
BA
RE: Bearing plate on brick wall
Not an inspired design and I don't particularly like it, but it seems workable.
Yes, the load (10.6k) is a bit high for the application. Not sure that's correct.
RE: Bearing plate on brick wall
However, the problem exists that the beam would have to be shored during the plate installation to deload the wall, and the entire plate regrouted to attain more uniform bearing once loaded again, otherwise the OP would just be kidding himself with the addition to the plate.
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
http://mmcengineering.tripod.com
RE: Bearing plate on brick wall
Agree with BA that stability is probably even more important than the bearing stress, and that the design should be reviewed by a "competent engineer", but I don't think the OP had found that engineer. In this case, the client was better versed than the engineer, and that is sad.
RE: Bearing plate on brick wall
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RE: Bearing plate on brick wall
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
http://mmcengineering.tripod.com
RE: Bearing plate on brick wall
Basically on some of the jobs I have done, if the client called me about whether a 1/2" steel plate worked or not. I would be incline to tell them that we should bump it up to 5/8" or 3/4" before redoing or going over the calculations for him. If another engineer called me about the steel plate not working I would ask them for their building calculations of the load on the steel plate. If they do not have their own calculations on it but were using mine, I would ask them to call back when they have completed their calculations and that we could go over it then.
Whether this is the situation of the original OP or not we really do not have enough information to make a comment on. Whether the original OP'er should get another engineer to look at the job. That is again something we do not have enough information to made a comment on.
Personally for the amount of money that is being spend on buildings and remodeling. I think that a fair price (and not just taking the low bid) for original engineering and having the plans reviewed (by other than the building department) is a very good idea.
Garth Dreger PE - AZ Phoenix area
As EOR's we should take the responsibility to design our structures to support the components we allow in our design per that industry standards.