2 ms·
>> Your guess is as good as mine why the same steel shape is an I-beam but an H-pile. This is because the shapes are different. I beams are typically more slen
by abduhl 2y ago
>> Your guess is as good as mine why the same steel shape is an I-beam but an H-pile.
This is because the shapes are different. I beams are typically more slender through the web because the goal is to concentrate mass at the flange for moment capacity because they’re beams and geared towards bending. H piles are thicker in the web with the web thickness usually similar to the flange because the use case requires axial capacity and various constructability considerations. I beams turned into W (wide flange) and S sections in the standard shapes and H beams are called HP sections.
You’ll often see them cross-specified for foundation work but it’s rare that you’d choose an HP section over a more efficient section like a W or S for something “out of the ground.”
- chasd00 2y agoThank you for this. In college, for some reason, i hung out with architecture majors instead of my fellow computer science people. They would talk about "w flanges" when, to me, they meant I-Beams. I never cared enough to ask but knew better than to try and correct them because that's pretty annoying heh.
- LegitShady 2y agoIt's good you didn't correct them because they aren't the same thing. Wide flange beams have wider flanges that don't taper or taper less than I beams. Your architecture friends were probably using the right lingo.
- pimlottc 2y agoImportant bit of background knowledge: "The horizontal elements of the I are called flanges, and the vertical element is known as the "web"." Useful graphic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-BeamCrossSection.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I-BeamCrossSection.svg