4;il

THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE. Book II.

pushed togi'tlier. S'mcj tlieie are tliesL- two strains, ihere will be son:e line or point in
ttie depth which is labouring under neither the one nor tlie other
;
tliis is the neutral axis.
I'he fiirthei the fibres are from t! e neutral line, the more they will resist deflection from
the load. It miglit he inferred that the material should he placed so far above and bi low
ihe neutral line as other circnmstames will allow, in order tiiat thiy may be in a position
to exercise the greatest power. Tlie most simple application of these views is sliown ic
Laves's girder (dcscril)ed in Caufkntky ). "As cast iron resists fracture about six times
more powerfully under compressian tlian under tension, it is useless to give as much area
of material in tlie upper or compressed, as in the lower or extended, flange of a cast iron
beam." Hodgkmson {Experimental Researches, 1846, p.
484-94) slates that the position
of the neutral axis in cast iron rectangular beams, at the time of fracture, is situated ac
about 4 of the whole depth of the bam below its upper surface. The sectional area of the
top flange of a cast iron girder must be rather more than
\
of the bottom flange, to keep
the position of the neutral axis at
\
of the depth. In sudden f. actures it was from
i
to
i
of the depth.
Ifi.SO'/. Trt'dgold, Iron. 1st edit. 1822, p. 53, considered the line of neutral axis in thl.s
section to be in the middle of the depth. He notices the curious fact jiut forth by
I)u Hamvl, who cut beams one-third, one-half, and two-thirds through, and found tlie
wights to be borne
by
the uncut beam 45 lbs.
;
and by those cut 51 lbs., 48 lbs. and
42 lbs. respectively wiiich would indicate that less than half the fibres weie engaged in re-
sisting extension, although it does not prove that two-thirds of the thickness contril.uted
nothing to the strength, as Robison imagines. Barlow found that in a rt-ctangular beam
of fir, the neutral axis was about five-eighths of the depth, as shown by the section of frac-
ture. Warr gives for cast iron, the value of n or neutral axis
2*63
;
n =
6 when the line
may come in the middle. Attention should be given to the highly valuable
i)aper by the
.\stronomer Royal (Prof. Airy), On the Strains in the Interior
of
Beamx anil Tubular
Bri'lges, read in 1862 before the British Association at Cambridge. It is given in the
.Athenaeum for October II
;
and its further elucidation in tlie last edition
(1864)
of
Fairbairn's Jpplicalion
of
Cust Iron, ^'c.
lP30e. D( flection. The deflection of a beam supported at the ends and loaded in the
middle, is directly as the cube of the length, inversely as the cube of the depth, and in-
versely as the breadth; therefore,
^^:^^|--j^^3
= deflection. Beams have been said to
I ear considerable deflection without any injury
to the elasticity of the material. BufFor
and Tredgold considered the elasticity to remain perfect until one-third of the breakino
weight is laid en. Hodgkinson was perhaps the frst who practically showed that in a
east iron bean, a J,nd part of the breaking weight caused a visible set alter that weight
was removed
;
while another beam took a visible set with g'^th part of its breaking weight,
He found the
;
e'mnnent set in cast iron beams to be as the square of the load applied. He
also found that cast iion beams bore two-thirds, and even m )re, of tlieir bieakin; weight
for long periods, without any indication of failing. Gregory {Mechanics
for Practical Men,
4th edit. 1862) considers that, though the above rule may he correct for lieams about 5 feet
in length, it does not apply when they are much longer. Thomas Cuhitt found Iiy
iiis
experiments that, when tlie length became about 20 feet, the set was only as the weight
;
and that witli larger beims the set was still less. Fairbairn found the impropriety of
adopting any rule founded on elastic limits, since it was evident that, while the elasticity of
a bar is injured as soon as a weight was applied, the particles or fibres take up fresh
|)ositions until the antagonisTu- forces in the beam are brought nearly to equality, when
one-third or two-thiris of the breaking weight wid affect the subsequent deflection of the
beam.
1630/ For a rectangular beam of cast iron supported at both ends and loaded in the middle
to the extent of its elastic force,
^t-;^- =deflection. For similar beams, loaded uni-
formly, muliiply by -025 in place of 02. (Tredgold). It has been stated that the
ultimate strength of a girder of the usual proportions may be approximately ascertained
from its deflection under proo*', on the assumption that a load equal to lialf ihe breaking
Weight will cause a deflection of
:,ig
of its length (Dobson). The prop, rtion of the
greatest depth of a beam to the span is so regulated, that the proportion of the greatest
deflection tj the span shall not exceed a limit which experience has shown to be consistent
with convenience. That proportion, from various examples, appears to be for the working
load.
""^-
- from
g^
to ^Jg^
;
for the pro.f load, -y-'=from
jij
to
glj
(Raiikine).
1630(7. Mr D nes, when superintending upwards of two hundred experiments for Mr.
Cuhitt, oncast-ir.)n girders (as seetion D) who.se dimensions are limited, found that when
the load in the centre is taken as
fths of the breaking weight, the following formulse may
be used: {d depth in centre
;
/ length in feet) : I. When the top and bottom flanges are