I am building a motified (in length) Central Valley Truss bridge. I need to know in real engineering, since the top beam is too short by only 1 1/2" real 1 to 1, would I just splice it there or over the center beam (see my other thread for the exact bridge I am building done by Rob Spangler).
In the real world No, not a Truss beam. Modeling ok. I would try to find a replacement. Plastruct carry’s all kind’s of Truss beam’s in all kind’s of sizes.
There are Plastruct 1/4’’ Warren truss beam’s added to both these buildings. Dual purpose…to keep roof removable and hold up the brass tubes for the lights.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Are you talkinig about the long horizontal beam at the top of the truss? And adding a splice plate similar to what Rob shows in his photo? I think I would be inclined to have the joint at that center vertical member where the natural connector splice is located and would hide the joint.
I don’t know if making a horizontal splice at another location is prototypical or not, and to some it doesn’t matter. But then again it depends who is going to critique your work.
If you are making the bridge shorter than designed, are there not enough parts left over to make up a piece of the proper length?
I am making the bridge shorter and would have used a longer peice on the top in the 1-1 world, that being said I am short and after looking through a lot of engineering web sites I found that, within reason, let the joints fall where may but stagger them.
The beauty of trusses is that all of the members are in either pure tension or pure compression (some will switch between the two states as a load moves along the truss, depending on the truss geometry). None of them are bending. So while it’s not usually done in practice, one could theoretically put a splice anywhere one wanted along the length of any member. The members were typically fabricated so that splices were made where all members came together (the “joints”) to reduce the number of connections that had to be made in the field, but not always. The truss top chord is a compression member and will thus be somewhat beefier than other members.
Thanks!!!