General: Camber

So the word camber is pretty much for steel members and pre-stressed, pre-tensioned concrete members. And it's basically an upward, a slightly upward curvature that is induced into the member so that when it's loaded with the anticipated loads, it deflects downward to horizontal. So if you will, camber is like a positive deflection. When loaded, it goes down. In steel, for example, it could be an inch in 30 feet. And it's specified on drawings. And with precast members also, there is camber. And camber is basically this dimension right here. Based on the length, it's a percentage. Based on the length, how many inches are needed. So here we can see at the steel fabricator, a castellated beam. A camber is introduced into this castellated beam. This is hard to understand, but you can pretty much see the curvature. And that's what that camber is. Very good.