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HI people,

I am studying a HNC in mechanical engineering and need help with a question.

I have a simply supported beam with two forces acting on it. I need to calculate the uniformly distributed load in KN/m.

Any comments would be helpful.

A simply support beam will have a minimum of three forces acting on it. In the case you mentioned:

1. The uniformly supported load on one face
2. the two reaction forces or points at the two ends (simply supported).

If you have two loads you can take the results of each load independently and add them together.

Niel Leon
engineering.com

I thought the formula was something like desity x area x length.

Then divde by a 1000 and x gravity to give KN/m

What are your original units for density, area, and length?

Yes, If your units for density are kg/volume then for force you will need to convert using the gravity constant of 9.807 m/sec.

If the only force on the support is due to the mass of the beam then you are correct.

Going from Newtons to Kilo-Newtons you will use the factor of 1000.

Niel