DISTRIBUTED LOADS

In reality, any force applied on a body is  distributed over an area, i.e. a distributed load or
pressure. A distributed load can be simplified (or modeled) as a concentrated force when the
area of contact is relatively small and the simplification does not affect the external effects
(e.g. deformation). In this case, the load on a body is referred to as a concentrated load. For
example, the ground reaction forces on the tires of a car can be considered as concentrated
loads to forces (Fig. 3.32). Another example is the load of a person walking on a tightrope
(Fig. 3.32). If we consider the rope as a body, the person’s weight exerted to the rope through
the soles of the person’s feet is the load on the rope. The forces on the rope can be regarded
as concentrated forces as the contact area between the sole of each foot and the rope is small.

In many cases, however, a continuous distribution of forces on a body should be considered.

A continuously distributed external force is referred to as a distributed load. For example,
the weight of a pile of snow on a roof is distributed over the area of the roof (Fig. 3.33). This
means every unit of area bears some part of the total weight of the snow pile on the roof.

Fig. 3.33 Distribution of the weight of a pile of snow on a roof.

A distributed load over an area has a direction and a magnitude. The direction of a distributed
load over an area may vary at different points and is demonstrated by little arrows over the
area. The magnitude of a distributed load is described by its intensity being defined as force
per unit area, or pressure. In SI units, a distributed load has the unit of Newton per square
meter  N /m2 identified as Pascal,  Pa .

As an example, consider a solid box resting on part of the surface of a table (Fig. 3.34). The
weight of the box, transmitted to the table through the base of the box that is in contact with
the table, is a distributed load on the table. This load is uniformly distributed on the table as
W
shown in Fig. 3.34. The intensity of the load is  p= P , where W  is the weight of the box
A a
W
and  A  is the area of the base in contact with the table. Note that, p= ⬌ pA
A

  .

Fig. 3.34 Uniform distribution of the weight of a solid box on an area of a table.

Uniform intensity. A distributed load with a constant intensity over an area is said to have a
uniform intensity. Accordingly, a uniform load or a uniformly distributed load conveys the
same meaning.

With an analogy to the weight load of a box on a surface, the magnitude of total (resultant)
P
force exerted by a uniform load over an area is  F= .
A

CONTEXT: DISTRIBUTED LOADS

 Though many loads can be idealized as a force acting at a single point there are many
situations where engineers use distributed loads in design.
  Distributed loads may either be a pressure (e.g. pounds per square inch, kilopascals) or a
‘line load’ (e.g. kilonewtons per metre). Pressure loads are usually used to design wide
elements like slabs and walls while line loads are used to design narrow elements like
beams.

 Engineers use distributed loads to account for the self weight of elements (e.g. beams,
slabs, windows, retaining walls), environmental loads (e.g. wind and snow),
and internal pressures (e.g. pressurized cylinders) in structures.
 Engineers also use distributed loads to design structures where the exact arrangement of
forces are unknown. For instance, engineers cannot predict how people arrange
furniture and how heavy their furniture is but using historical data on living
arrangements they can assume that the day-to-day pressure from people and furniture in
residential buildings is 1.9 kPa (~40 pounds per square foot) when they design those
types of structures.

APPLICATIONS: WHAT ARE SITUATIONS WHERE ENGINEERS CONSIDER

DISTRIBUTED LOADS?

So far in this text we have focused on concentrated forces (or ‘point forces’). In reality, no
force truly acts at a single point (discussed in Section 3.1) but assuming forces act at a single
point is fine for many situations that engineers consider.
That said, there are many situations where engineers need to consider distributed loads. For
instance, to ensure that the roof of the building in Fig. 3.35a does not collapse under the
weight of snow, engineers need to factor in the expected depth and density of the snow on the
roof as a pressure. They can determine the worst-case snow depth based on decades of
climate data that is published by the federal government for each town in Canada. The same
concerns (albeit harder to see) arise with wind, which can push or pull on objects.
 Fi
g. 3.35 Common situations where engineers consider distributed loads (a) snow on top of a
building (b) exposed concrete floor slabs in a condominium tower under construction.
(Photos by D. Tomlinson)

EXAMPLE 3.5.1

A cylinder is resting on a table an its base has a diameter of 2 m. The weight of the cylinder is
transformed to the surface of the table through the base of the cylinder and creates a
uniformly distributed load with the intensity of 10 Pa. Calculate the weight of the cylinder.

SOLUTION

W =P π 2 =31,4N
a →W =(10)(¿ . 2 )¿
4

A distributed load is not necessarily distributed over a flat surface. For example, the pressure
load inside a pressurized cylinder is (uniformly) distributed over the internal surface of the
cylinder (Fig 3.36).
Fig. 3.36 Uniform distribution of the pressure inside a cylinder on a non flat surface.

Generally, the intensity of a load varies over the area of distribution. For example, the water
pressure (intensity of water load) over a dam changes with water depth (Fig. 3.37a), or the
distribution of the weights of books on a shelf can have a varying intensity over the shelf
(Fig. 3.37b).

Fig. 3.37 (a) Water pressure (intensity of water load) over a dam, (b)distribution of the
weights of books on a shelf.

Mathematically, the intensity of a load is a function of position,  x , y over an area. Therefore,

the intensity can be defined by a function  p( x , y ) over the points of an area. This function
can be plotted in three dimensions by considering the points of the distributed area to be on
the x and y axes, and the values of intensity be along the z axis.
In this book, a special type of distributed load known as distributed load along a line or an
axis is considered. Realistic loads in many problems in engineering practice are modeled or
closely represented by this type of loading.
3.5.2 SIMPLIFICATION OF A DISTRIBUTED LOAD ALONG AN AXIS

In many problems, like equilibrium of rigid bodies (Section 5.2) or support reaction
calculation a distributed load can be represented by a concentrated load, for simplicity
reasons, without changing its effects in the calculation. The equivalent system of a distributed
load as shown in Fig. 3.40 consists of a resultant force at a specific location. The equivalent
system is obtained based on the simplification of a coplanar force system to a resultant force
(see Section 3.4.2 and example 3.4.5).

Fi
g. 3.40 A distributed load and its intended equivalent system.

In many problems the shape of the load intensity function is simple and   can be readily
calculated. Figure 3.41 shows the resultant force and   of two common load distributions.

Fig. 3.41 Two simple load distributions and the positions of their resultant forces.

The magnitude of the resultant force is the area under the intensity function and   is the   
coordinate of the centroid of the shape of the area under the intensity function. The following
paragraphs show the general calculation of   and  . Students are encouraged to read them
after acquiring a firm knowledge in calculus.
To determine the magnitude of the resultant force, the total length   of the distributed load is

divided into   equal-length elements (segments) with a length of   (Fig. 3.42). If   
is small enough,   is almost uniform over the element and, therefore, the magnitude of the
force over the element is  . The magnitude of   is approximately
determined by summing   over   as,

  
The exact value of   is obtained by letting the number of divisions,  , increase to infinity,

  
leading to,

(3.27) 

Fig. 3.42 Dividing the axis of the load into n elements.

The geometrical interpretation of this integral is the area,  , under the load intensity
function  ,

(3.28) 
where   is an element of area as shown in Fig. 3.43.
 Fi
g 3.43 Geometrical interpretation of the integrals.

The location of   is determined by equating the moments of the forces about a point in the
two systems (Fig. 3.40). The point for calculating the moments can be anywhere on
the x axis, however, it is common to select any end of the length over which the load is
distributed. We select point   located at the origin of the x axis (Fig. 3.40). Equating the
moments of the two systems is written as,

  
which becomes equivalent to the following integral,

  
and (by Eq. 3.27) leads to,

(3.29) 
Considering the geometrical meaning of this integration (Fig. 3.43), we write Eq. 3.29 as,

(3.30) 
which can be regarded as the geometrical interpretation of Eq. 3.29. The point associated
with the coordinate   is a geometrical properties of the shape of the area   under the diagram
(graph) of the load intensity function. This is called the   coordinate of the centroid of the
shape of the area. The concept of centroid will be presented in Section 9.3.