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🏗️ Frame Behavior Explorer
A portal frame — two columns and a beam, both bases fixed. Drag the load's position and change its magnitude and direction, and watch the deflected shape and bending moment diagram respond instantly. No score, no target — just build a feel for how a rigid frame shares moment between its beam and columns.
Load
Geometry
Live Response
Deflected Shape
Moment Diagram
This simulation runs the exact same direct-stiffness-method
solver (
engine/frame-solver.js → solve2DFrame) used in the
2D Frame Stiffness Solver calculator — itself cross-checked against three independent
hand/textbook methods. This portal-frame case was additionally verified two ways: the
moment at the beam-column joint matches exactly on both sides (rigid-joint continuity,
difference < 10⁻⁶), and total horizontal reactions exactly balance the applied load
(global equilibrium). Every frame you see here is a real stiffness-matrix solve, not
a pre-rendered animation.Method
Model2D portal frame: two columns rigidly connected to a beam, both bases fully fixed. Direct stiffness method, combined axial + Euler-Bernoulli bending per element.
LoadA single point load is applied at the chosen position along the beam by adding an intermediate node there — the frame is re-meshed live as you move the slider.