Abstract

This paper presents mechanical elements of rectangular nonprismatic members for symmetrical parabolic haunches subjected to a uniformly distributed load by through analytical models, these are: fixed-end moments, carry-over factors and stiffness factors. The properties of the rectangular cross section of member vary along its axis “x”, i.e., the width “b” is constant and the height “h” varies along the beam, this variation is parabolic type. Traditional methods for nonprismatic members to obtain the deflections used the Simpson’s rule, or any other technique to perform numerical integration, and the tables showing some authors are restricted to certain relationships. Also a comparison is made between the proposed models and tables that show some authors. Besides the effectiveness and accuracy of the developed models, a significant advantage is that fixed-end moments, carry-over factors and stiffness factors are calculated for any rectangular cross section of the beam using the mathematical formulas.

Keywords: Nonprismatic members; Parabolic haunches; Fixed-end moments; Carry-over factors; Stiffness factors