Abstract
In this work linear analysis of beams supported by columns are performed by using a BEM (Boundary Element Method) formulation for Kirchhoff's plates with columns defined inside the domain. The presented BEM formulation is derived from the reciprocity theorem where the columns are introduced into the formulation by considering domain points where tractions can be prescribed. For that, the column bending reactions over the plate have to be transformed into normal stress uniformly distributed over the column cross section. Then, this stress is considered as additional distributed load acting on the plate. Some examples are then shown to illustrate the accuracy of the proposed formulation, being the results compared to Ftool, a well-known Brazilian software, where the beams supported by columns are modelled as a frame. This work shows that that the plate BEM formulation is also suitable to perform beams analysis, we have only to adopt the loads and dimensions of the plate used in the BEM analysis accordingly.
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