Beam size required to support digital signs
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: Beam size required to support digital signs
: Beam size required to support digital signs -- doupie	Post Reply	Top of thread	Engineering Forum

Posted by: Paver ® 11/20/2009, 10:08:39 Author Profile eMail author Edit

My reply and I think the standard reply from others in this forum is that you need to consult an engineer to properly size the beam and connections to meet your conditions. That being said, you need to consider several things if you're going to try this yourself. A simplistic but conservative starting point would be to consider a simple 16' span with a 660lb load at midspan. In the calculators section of this forum you can look at the "Beam Bending Equations / Calculation Supported on Both Ends Single Load at Center". This would at least give you an estimate of the bending capacity needed. Beyond this it can get pretty complicated pretty quickly. In addition to moment capacity and deflections, you need to look at your connection design from the sign to the beams and the beam to the verticals. Also, you mentioned that this is an external sign anchored between two beams top and bottom. Depending where you are, this could act as a large sail when the wind kicks up and put all sorts of interesting torsional loads on your support system. Hope that helps and clarifies why the stock answer "consult an engineer" is used so often.

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