BEAMS: APPLIED COMPUTATION TO SOLVE PROBLEMS OF SOLID MECHANICS

Resumo

This paper aims to present the program BEAMS, initials in Portuguese for Exercise Bank
Applied to Solid Mechanics. It is an open source software-in-progress that intends to available a bank
of editable examples about different issues of Solid Mechanics. It has been developed in State University
of Minas Gerais, using Scilab and LaTeX. Scilab language has some advantages: It is open software, in
continuous improvement and evolution; Obtaining high-resolution graphics is simple; working with
vectors and matrices is easy; Good Graphical User Interface with icons, selection buttons, editable input
fields, checkboxes and others. Regarding to the LaTeX, it is a high quality typesetting system that
produces technical and scientific documentation, allowing to write equations in a mathematical format,
by using symbols and specific characters. In this way, the output file obtained via BEAMS displays the
results in a pdf format file, with all detailed calculations, adding formatted texts to the explanations,
math equations, figures and tables. It is possible because Scilab uses the LaTeX syntax, through of
JLaTeXMath library. The implementation developed until here of BEAMS lets the calculation of
unsymmetrical bending of the cross-section. Since the whole process is automated, it is enough to
modify the input data so the calculations are updated according to each type of cross section. In this way
the solution of different examples can be done quickly, allowing teachers and students to conference the
calculations and visualizing how to the dimensions and each cross section induce the value of the
calculated stresses.