I saw this flagpole just above the New Street HSBC; the fact that it resembles the beams that we've been working on for the past term and the support used made me put some thought to it. We could model this flagpole as a beam with a uniformly distributed load in the form of its weight and perhaps an extra force on the end for the brass knob. Forces would have to be taken at an angle from the beam which hasn't been done yet during tutorials (I think..) but would be easily managed with simple math.The support is used to stop buckling along the beam and my guess is that it was set up after the building so that the pole couldn't be built into it. This support is also made of quite a strong metal by the looks making it ideal for its strength against forces acting on it.
A problem could occur if any form of horizontal force affected this pole, it's supported quite nicely vertically but if a strong wind hit the side failure could happen. Then again, this is much less likely since there is so little area for the wind to affect.
Edit: I just noticed what looks like a bit of a spring towards the base of the pole, do you think that this was put in to stop horizontal forces or perhaps just extra support?
Photo by Martin Phipps, March 09
Post by Tom Corbett
This is a great example is it demonstrates the concepts of bending moments and shear stress learnt in lectures really well. How is the flag pole supported ? is it join to the wall of the building by pins or bolts or is it encased in the brickwork and work there be and shear stress at this point?
ReplyDeleteAbdul Awal
I unfortunately couldn't see how, it was way too high up, I'm guessing a bolting to the floor but..who knows.
ReplyDeleteTom Corbett