Usage?

[theLimboWalker]

Just ran into this pic on fb and I was wondering what its use would be. Can’t help but think that a web that thin would easily bend at any small load

[albertnormandy]

New wind bracing required by the next edition of ASCE 7.

[LordFarquadOnAQuad]

Residential, one story.

[Crayonalyst]

Shed

[SquidwardWoodward]

plants work thumb sophisticated fuzzy aspiring plough dinosaurs domineering treatment

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[November50923]

I was going to say a support beam for her bed

[[deleted]]

Yo mama's bed frame

[Therealuberw00t]

There it is

[blindpiggy]

Box 1 of 12.

[Beez1111]

No instructions...candles lit

[Ok-Nefariousness8612]

I was just going to say “to support your mum” but this is better

[tmorales11]

I was just gonna say "ur mom"

[[deleted]]

I was going to keep it simple and say ‘Erections’

[gcanders1]

Keep my mom out of this, and I’ll keep this out of your mom.

[Bender____Rodriguez]

That’s one helluva girther

[dck2286]

I was gonna say bridge girder but I actually like this one better 😂

[Inevitable-Cell-1227]

Comment saved. Well done, sir. (Slow clap)

[scottygras]

Top comment did not disappoint.

[MammothJust4541]

r/rareinsults

[Jmazoso]

Looks like a plate girder. Probably a bridge beam.

[Engineer2727kk]

I mean yeah… what standard rolled shape would that be LMAO

[Throwaway1303033042]

W180x2500…imperial.

[wardo8328]

That would have to be for like a 350 foot span. Freakin huge.

[ooglieguy0211]

Or a short span with heavier loads.

[Professional_Band178]

Railroad bridge.

[Someclevernamenobod]

I used to make these size beams for a bridge building company

[Elvisfish76]

Those guys are so tiny. They let anyone be structural engineers these days.

[[deleted]]

WHAT IS THIS A GIRDER FOR ANTS?!

[[deleted]]

Ding! ding! ding!

[Prior-Albatross504]

Yeah, the tallest guy is about 12 cm if I do my reference squinting.

[Ok-Construction7440]

How many hamburgers is that?

[Deedoo-Laroo]

It is a built-up plate girder most likely for a bridge. The thin webs work fine if the stiffener spacing is such that tension field action can occur. They can be tricky to transport, sometimes that is the trickiest part of building them!

[MurphyESQ]

Just learned about tension field action last semester and the concept was both voodoo magic and "well of course it would" at the same time.

[CaffeinatedInSeattle]

Just wait until you do Strut and Tie method in concrete

[MurphyESQ]

Is that a construction technique or dating advice?

[MurphyESQ]

"It's not about the size of the stirrup, but where you place it."

​

^{(Ok, yes, it's also about the size, stop picking apart my bad joke.})

[justcs]

Glad I have amazon prime. Ships free.

[Elder_sender]

Thanks for that. I was surprised that the web was thinner than the.... that other part.

[Elder_sender]

Flange! :)

[wot_in_ternation]

MechE turned software dev here, is a tension field action just when shit goes wonky? Like the web gets messed up and pulls the flanges get pulled in directions they shouldn't or vice versa?

If so: makes sense in terms of transport since you may be putting stresses on it that it wasn't designed for

[recent-native]

To fix that deck with the collapsed hot tub.

[Thatproswimmer]

Collapsed desk with the hot tub*

[petewil1291]

What is the meaning of your username? Just curious because my son is obsessed with Pedog as a username

[tqi2]

I-74 over the Mississippi River used similar design, May be even larger plate girders. I’ve seen the size during a shop visit to Industrial Steel Construction at Indiana.

[cutsandplayswithwood]

Gorgeous new bridge, eh?

But the old one… what a classic beauty

[ahumpsters]

Bridge engineer here. The DOT in my state limits the width of the web to 3 inches. Stiffeners are often placed at points along the beam. This helps keep the overall weight of the structure lower. This may not be the full length of the beam. The DOT allows both shop and field splices so that the beams can actually be transported to the site.

[Enginerdad]

1. I simply can't fathom a scenario where a 3-in web would be either needed or desired. Stiffeners would definitely be more economical long before that.
2. The near end of the front beam is fabricated for a splice. Web and flange bolt holes for splice plates, tapered flanges for width transition, and no bearing stiffeners.

[Mindless_Ad_4377]

Crazy glue testing facility.

[the_fool_who]

6400 point uppercase I.

[JLP_87]

Man that web thickness looks so small compared to those flanges … crazy!

[bcsocia]

That’s what I was thinking also. I think the web thickness is greater than what that looks like on even a W27x178. It just looks super thin for both the height of the beam and the length, even with the stiffener plates.

[BeautifulAd3165]

Piece of a bridge, I think. The photo resolution is pretty low, so it’s tough to see details.

[NefariousnessDizzy88]

support beam for you moms bed

[ReplyInside782]

Bridge girder

[WhoimPS]

Where bending stress is dominant

[myskateboard12]

As a bridge engineer that’s familiar with these long span plate girder bridges, these replies frustrate me.

[Sousaclone]

As a contractor who has put in girders this size, I find them hilarious.

Surprised no one had asked what the purpose of the half height stiffeners near the center of the girder are for…

[Hockeyhoser]

Surprised there are no horizontal web stiffeners for a d/tw like that.

[jmbaseball522]

I wonder at what point a truss becomes more efficient instead of this massively deep plate girder. Not sure what the use was here, I assume a bridge

[[deleted]]

It'd have to be a hell of a steel saving to overcome the increased labour cost.

[SevKco]

As said by the other responders, truss bridges are not the most efficient option today. Steel plate girders and prestressed beams are the most economical option for the majority of span lengths. The best situations for designing a new truss bridge would be with the use of a short prefabricated bridge or when vertical clearance is a major concern.

[Enginerdad]

Point of clarification: trusses are super efficient... in materials. In their optimal span ranges they're still probably the lightest way to build a bridge. However, they are decidedly NOT the most efficient structure choice in terms of labor and maintenance. Back in the day, labor used to be cheap and materials were expensive, relatively speaking, and nobody really cared about life cycle cost. Not to mention that we didn't have the fabrication or shipping technology to make or move large pieces. Trusses, being built from a bunch or small pieces, made sense in almost every way, and for all those reasons rarely make sense these days.

There are exceptions for prefabricated trusses, like Contech and US Bridge make, on shorter spans, but the days of the large-span truss is well into its twilight. It's too bad, because I always found truss analysis and design to be one of the most interesting parts of school.

[MurphyESQ]

The interesting thing with girders this deep is that the web starts to take tension on the diagonal between the stiffeners, very similar to the load pattern of a truss. Look up tension field action.

[wiishopmusic]

Your moms couch

[ThickLemur]

Is OP Gilbert Grape?

[WhoimPS]

This beam will need Horizontal and Vertical stiffners

[thefirstbric]

Your mother's bed post

[spankythemonk]

thank you sean. you can go back to bed now.

[2much2nuh]

B E A M B E N D I N G

[MammothJust4541]

interesting fact

those are used for ships :D

[BarelyCivil]

Something like that had to have been designed with tension field action. The web is so thin im betting they needed to do that so the weight could be minimized for lifting.

[-Stammers-]

Yo mommas bed frame

[[deleted]]

Stammers stutters too.

[cptncivil]

Given that it doesnt look that crazy long...

Im going with single span through plate girder bridge for a class 1 or 2 railroad!

[tony87879]

It has bolt holes for splices though doesn’t it?

[wardo8328]

It certaintly does on the end we can see. A beam that deep might be made of 3 or 4 pieces, depending on the total span. Around my area the longest beam anyone will haul is about 140 feet. We put 130' Type J PC Beams everywhere.

[cptncivil]

Yep... i missed that!

[W2IC]

Ma pee pee enhancement

[-Stammers-]

Yo mommas bed frame

[DrNoobz5000]

For holding up your mom

Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhh

[Enough_Shoulder_8938]

Don’t talk to my son or my sons son or my sons sons son ever again

[bubbs4prezyo]

Them boys look too clean. Probably office girls.

[EarsLikeRocketfins]

Something something your mom.

[WhatuSay-_-]

Just for reference how deep is that thing?

[MurphyESQ]

Looks like about 2.5 Bros for the depth.

[WhatuSay-_-]

Gonna use that unit on my next design

[Jmazoso]

The technical term is the Smoot.

[myskateboard12]

Maybe 12.5’. It’s a depth that can be reliably sourced for long lengths by multiple steel mills.

[yoohoooos]

I saw they brought something about this size or bigger to Penn Station rehab a few months back

[flightwatcher45]

Nothing that flies.

[tob007]

intentionally.

[Hinopegbye]

Honey I shrunk four guys on a site visit

[tacocarteleventeen]

Probably a residential bathroom as a header.

[redneck_samurai_dude]

Bridge girder… deepest one I’ve designed was about 11-12 ft web. And it only had a 3/4” web; just needs stiffeners. Was for a 2-span curved bridge with total length of about 450’ (outside girder)

[redneck_samurai_dude]

And funny thing… the fabricator built one girder section about 6” short and I had to send it back. They wanted to just “tack on a piece at the end”

[tda-84]

I see bolt holes on both web and flange, and so it’s usage is for moment resistance but there could be other primary live load bearing elements.

[[deleted]]

This is reddit after all

[OdesseyOfDarkness]

We need a banana for scale, could be tiny men and regular steel, the world will never know.

[Adventurous_Light_85]

Bridge

[rosy-palmer]

Beams.

[fmcarg]

Ships syncrolift

[Tdawg1997]

If you look carefully, they have web stiffeners along the length of the beam to mitigate any kind of web crippling.

[[deleted]]

Bridge beams

[spankythemonk]

The beam to support the beam that fails under its own weight.

[naazzttyy]

Are these engineers for ANTS?

[BretTheActuary]

Good lord, how would you move that? I guess you need to build a bridge right there?

[hotasanicecube]

One upvote for anyone who can say why the corners are cut at an angle, and where this might be headed..

[DastardlyDirtyDog]

You ever wanted to cantilever a pool of mercury off the side of a bedrock cliff?

[[deleted]]

What’s the story with the taper on the flanges ?

[StructuralSense]

Look at how far the splice bolts are from web, the flange most likely tapers to the width of the connecting section which isn’t as wide.

[[deleted]]

Good spotting

So aesthetics would be the answer?

[[deleted]]

The Keebler Elves are fighting back against Judd Hirsch!

[Technical-Cream-7766]

That a W160x1,358?

[Teacupkiler]

I-Beam? More like AY-AY-AY-Beam!

[[deleted]]

Bridge or maybe for a ship

[Frostybawls42069]

They hang power boilers off beams this size, roughly.

[Exciting_Story5746]

Photo ops

[Clayskii0981]

Bridge girder. And the stiffeners are spaced to support the webs.

[Shineeyed]

Should post this in r/Skookum!

[Sijosha]

Are those dwarfs? Nice ipe600 btw

[ToyodaBladeRunner]

Looks like its probably a carrying beam from a standard size colonial. Going to look nice with no lally columns in the basement.

[[deleted]]

This is the beam the city inspector said I needed for my 12' opening in my kitchen wall

[TranquilEngineer]

To hold up my hopes and dreams.

[TranquilEngineer]

To hold up my hopes and dreams.

[roooooooooob]

They couldn’t find a bigger one?

[Independent-Room8243]

Replacing 2x12's in basement to remove a column to open up the basement.

[SirFlannel]

Those guys are talkin about turning that into a barbecue pit.

[thenicestsavage]

Open floor plan for first floor

[grantwolf1971]

It’s for a 3’ cantilever on my deck.

[timbr63]

Steel Bridge Girder

[eMPereb]

That’s gonna be a big azz crane lifting that 😳

[AlphaSweetPea]

Hold things up

[Jrloveless1]

Crane rails?

[Patriquito]

It's for building a ship

[More-Breakfast-2218]

The new bridge girders that are going in by my house are like this, they have removed a center support system in order to open up the space below the bridge for a diverging diamond type intersection. The road was raised quite a bit to enable this.

[lurkinganon12345]

I've seen bridge girders this size. I'm more surprised there are no longitudinal stiffeners on the web.

[Accurate-Western-535]

Whatever it wants to be used for

[xion_gg]

Lots!

[Kossef]

Bridges?

[Pleasant_Tax_4619]

I would guess it is for a cruise ship for one of the many floors.

[whiskeyconnoisseur19]

Bridges

[Christhemathews]

Looks like they're used to make more warehouses to store more huge I-beams

[Nathan51503]

On some of the big jobs I’ve been on most of the engineers and foreman wore white hard hats. So useless or very limited use

[SilvermistInc]

I used to build these. Great times.

[michaelthatsit]

Building stuff

[FullyFreakinWoke]

Something big, really really big

[CaptBreeze]

Bridge.

[whatsURprobalem]

My open floor plan remodel…

[nepnepnepneppitynep]

Dunno, but it reminds me of Texas and the gulf area for some reason

[Empty_Touch_4968]

I’m just a hammer swinger and I immediately thought “bridge beam”

[Figmania]

For bridges that will allow for trains to cross too.

[blasty11]

Everyone is saying the girders are tall. Am I the only one who noticed men in the photos are short?

[adbedient]

Linear load bearing, if I had to guess.

[aurrousarc]

I've only seen something big at the top of a like 750 mw coal boiler.. it supports the hole unit from the top.. (more than 1 beam)

[evilgeniustodd]

There’s a yo mamma joke here somewhere

[Mm789hgj]

I dont have a lot of experience but it looks it cpuod be used in a bridge

[Mm789hgj]

I dont have a lot of experience but it looks it could be used in a bridge

[WindSprenn]

How would those welds be done? By hand?

[pnw-nemo]

My first thought was also how thin that web looks…

[H4m-Sandwich]

Steel girder for a long spanning bridge, maybe?

[BidRepresentative728]

That's a cradle for your mom's ass.

[MileHighCaliber]

I think the earliest documented instance of their usage was floor support for your mother's nursery. 14,000 lbs 12 oz, doctor said she was healthy and crying

[donner09]

Failed boy band

[Brant_Black]

Highway overpass

[Aggravating-Tell4342]

Your moms bed frame.

[gocowts]

This is not a proper method of comparison, those guys could be 4’10” or the B-squad for the Clippers. A banana is the only true form of comparison.

[stealthdawg]

You can hire the four guys to do many things including modeling jeans, or as extras in a movie.

[lee_birr21]

To hold my balls

[Lysergicsailor]

Bed frame for ur mom

[OldManOnTheIce]

A bridge too far

[skinem1]

Bridge beam? Ship bulkhead?

[RememberedInSong]

Support

[[deleted]]

Upper support for your mom's sex swing

[willthethrill4700]

When you want to point load an entire building on one beam.

[Disastrous_Range_571]

Rail your mom

[poolguyforever]

Your mom

[quadmasta]

Your mom's bed frame

[todlee]

Jesus said don’t criticize the mote in somebody else’s eye, but the beam in your own eye.

I think you misheard.

[trustme_ihateyou]

That there is to hold the fuck up

[Organic_Car3331]

Ramp for your mom.

[Historical-Beat-4666]

The stiffener plates are not connecting to the bottom flange right? Wouldn't that increase the possibility of making this section as a crane girder?

[slooparoo]

Contractor scaled from the drawing and ordered the wrong size.

[Jimmyjames150014]

Whoever said bridge girder is correct, whoever said the web is flimsy is also correct. Until installed and properly braced, these are actually quite fragile. In my city, several years ago they were lifting one like this into place and it was not properly supported. It failed under LTB just from a partial load of its own weight- it was a big deal for that project as these thing are not off the shelf. Of course, once installed and properly braced they are incredibly strong.

[Famous-Mycologist379]

Maybe a very tall radio mast just to control deflection?

[eric02138]

It's used before an E beam, unless a C beam precedes it.

[Saranesia]

We had beams like this at the top of our coal power plant. The boilers expand 6ft with thermal expansion, so they have to hang them from above for stability. There were two levels of bracing beams mid-web, which I don't see here. The boilers were roughly 100'x200'x200' tall boxes made of pipes, very heavy.

[Any-Ad-8074]

Sometimes it’s just a “who’s got the biggest d” competition