mwhit74 / mlob

Determinate structure moving load analysis

This program calculates the shear and moment induced in a simply supported beam with a constant moment of area (moment of inertia) along the span length. Each axle is placed at each node (critial section) and the location of the other axles is calculated. The shear on each side of the node is calculated and the moment at each node is calculated.

By placing the axle at each node it ensures that the maximum forces are calculated at those nodes.

This program uses a functional programming paradigm approach.

For documentation use pydoc or see the poorly formatted html here.

mlob's Issues

Add formatted output

Create new function with formatted output.

Add docstrings

Add properly formatted docstrings. Pydoc and help should work with docstrings if done correctly.

Add corresponding forces and controlling axle location

Add corresponding shear to maximum moment
Add corresponding moment to maximum shear
Add axle number at node to generate maximum effects, basically gives the train location on the bridge to generate the maximum effects at each node.

Input doesn't allow for single point load

The user interface input doesn't allow for a single point load. Not that this is actually necessary as a structural engineer should be able to solve that problem in their sleep. It is a good, quick check for anyone new to the software to check that a single unit load correctly outputs the an influence line envelope.

Add unit testing

Add unit testing for mlob.

Option for sending output directly to file

Add an option for the user to send the echoed input and program output directly to a text file.

Graph Shear and Moment Diagrams

Give option to output envelope graphs probably using matplotlib of the shear and moment diagrams.

Probably not necessary but it's kinda cool to see the shapes.

Add command line options

add argparse options:
blank: user defined spacing, axles, trailing load, and span lengths
-c --cooper: automatically adds cooper axles/loads
-al --alternate: automatically adds alt axles
-ar --aream: runs both cooper and alt
-bl --batch len: batch lengths
-ba --batch axle: batch axle configs
-h --help: display options and description each

Moving Load Scale Factor

It is quite common to scale the the moving live load down for different types of analysis. It would be convenient to have an input that scales the live load up or down before the analysis is run.

This can offer some efficiencies where the use wants to run a scaled version of an axle configuration that already exists in the program like the E80 or the Alternate.

User Interface

Need a user interface. Command line interface would be fine.

Update to use numpy arrays

Going to try to squeeze a little more speed and memory efficiency out of this algorithm with numpy arrays. Apparently, based on a quick google search, the numpy arrays are faster and more memory efficient.

As they say "make it work, then make it fast".