GENERAL STRUCTURES

Use the time during the exam tutorial to go over the References they give you. You will
not need to remember any of the formulae for Max. Moment, Shear and Deflection that re
in the steel manual, they will be given to you on the test. During the tutorial you can
write down the basic ones so you have them next to you as a reference, and you dont
have to go bac and forth to the reference screen. !lso during that time " wrote down the
formulae that " did memori#e $ust for reference later. %hat way you are not double
guessing yourself on the units when you are under time &ressure. " also mared all the
math 'uestions and did them at the end.
(ere is some advice from David %hadeus that " found very hel&ful)
*!s far as memori#ing the formulas, it is by far more im&ortant to now what is involved
in a formula, rather than memori#e it without fully com&rehending how and when it
a&&lies. " am trying to em&hasi#e that there is a fair amount of +'ualitative+ 'uestions
about the formulas themselves.
!s for the radius of gyration, it is im&ortant to recogni#e that it is strictly a &ro&erty of
the geometry of the section ,r - ,S.R% ,"/!000 and is critical in the assessment of the
slenderness of steel columns. %he lesser the radius of gyration, the more liely a steel
column is to bucle ,the other factors that affect the slenderness of a steel column are its
un1braced length and how strongly its ends are connected.2
Mae sure you now the conce&ts behind the formula, which will in turn hel& you to
remember the formula itself better. 3or exam&le in the deflection formula the s&an of a
beam ,40 is to the 5
rd
&ower ,cubed0 where the load ,60 is to the 7
st
&ower8 therefore
increasing the s&an of a beam will im&act its deflection much more than if you increase
the load. Similarly values in the denominator they will im&act the result differently than
values is in the numerator.
!s far as which formulae to remember, " found that " only needed to remember 5 or 9 and
nowing a bit of algebra you can solve for any variable)
# Modulus of Elasticity formula)
E - Stress ,F0 / Strain or E - ,P / A0 / ,Deformation / L0
and all the variations of that formula
i.e.) Deformation - ,P :L0 / ,A : E0
# Section Modulus formula:
S - M / F and now how to solve for each variable
ie) M - F : S ; F - M / S
!lso now that S - ! / c and therefore F - Mc / !
%hey will give you ,S - : d
5
/ "0
# Formula for S#ear
3v - const. : < / ! and same as above now how to solve for each variable
# Coefficient of t#ermal e$%ansion &n0 is the ratio of unit strain to tem&erature change
and is constant for a given material.
n = / 4 = n L t
t
= PL P = E
AE A L
= %hey will give you most of the geometry formulae for the area, moment of "nertia ,!0
and Section Modulus ,S0 for rectangular sha&es and other basic sha&es, but not the area
of a circle 1 so remember the formula for the area of a circle and its circumference.
= !lthough they will give the Deflection formulae, now that Delta L - ,>onst. : 4oad :
S&an
5
0 / ,E : !0
= ?now how to solve for angles and legs of a triangle, all " needed on my test was the
basic)
a
@
A
@
- c
@
Sin - o&&osite / hy&otenuse, Cosine - ad$acent / hy&otenuse and Tan'ent - rise / run
= ?now how to figure the loads on tributary areas.
= ?now how to figure out reactions.
= 3or the @ moving load &roblem, the formula is in the steel manual, but all you need to
now is how to figure the reactions at the worst case scenario, for shear it would be with
the loads closest to the su&&orts and for bending it would be with the loads at the center,
then treat them as regular &oint loads.
Math &roblems are really only about 7BC to @DC of the test, the rest of it will be
'uestions on general nowledge of how structures wor, what is the best system for a
given situation, and some on cost in general. 4oo at the reference list E>!RF suggests
for this division and go to the library they have a few of them.
GHHD 4U>?II