What are the three usual shapes of structural beams? How do they differ and what are the applications for each?

There are three typical shapes of structural beams.

① S-beam (American Standard Shape I-beam) This beam shape is the traditional and oldest and is still produced and used in the fabrication of structural steel frames for buildings.

② W Beam or Wide I-Beam As a base for carrying heavy loads, this W beam is more effective than the S beam in carrying loads. This is because for the wide side that can resist the load, the wide side of the W beam has a higher percentage of the total metal cross-section.W beams are very popular in the market because they have more available shapes to give the designer more options compared to S beams.W beams are widely used in building structures.

③ H beams are usually used for load bearing piles and columns.H beams are different from S beams and W beams because the thickness of the wide sides and webs of H beams are roughly the same, and the height and width of the beams are almost the same. In high-rise buildings, H beams supported by columns are also used to carry very high loads. In addition, H-beams are particularly well suited to resist seismic forces because they provide a more balanced external force in the direction of the parallel and perpendicular webs than other I-beams.