Second moment of area

The second moment of area, also known as the area moment of inertia, moment of inertia of plane area, or second moment of inertia is a property of a cross section that can be used to predict the resistance of beams to bending and deflection, around an axis that lies in the crosssectional plane. The deflection of a beam under load depends not only on the load, but also on the geometry of the beam's cross-section. This is why beams with higher area moments of inertia, such as I-beams, are so often seen in building construction as opposed to other beams with the same area. Definition Let A be a beam cross section perpendicular to the beam's axis. That is, A is a plane region of a particular shape. Let be a straight line in the plane (by definition, perpendicular to the axis of the beam). Then the second moment of area of the region A about the line is

where I = the second moment of area about the line dA = an elemental area n = the perpendicular distance from the line to the element dA

When the line is the x axis and the bending force is parallel to the y axis, the second moment of area can be computed as

For calculating the stresses of bending, the above can only be used on its own when sections are symmetrical about the x-axis. When this is not the case, the second moment of area about both the x- and the y-axis and the product moment of area, Ixy are required.

The product moment of area, Ixy is defined as dA = an elemental area x = the perpendicular distance to the element dA from the axis y y = the perpendicular distance to the element dA from the axis x dA=dxdy Polar moment of area
Polar moment of inertia is a quantity used to predict an object's ability to resist torsion of beam

J0 = the polar moment of inertia about the axis z dA = an elemental area = the radial distance to the element dA from the axis z

Determine second moment of area, product moment of area and polar moment of area for the rectangular cross section

 Moment of inertia of a rectangle

Determine second moment of area and polar moment of area for the circular cross section

Parallel axis theorem

the parallel axis theorem or Huygens-Steiner theorem can be used to determine the moment of inertia of a rigid body about any axis, given the moment of inertia of the object about the parallel axis through the object's centre of mass and the perpendicular distance (r) between the axes.

The moment of inertia about the new axis z is given by:

where: Icm - is the moment of inertia of the object about an axis passing through its centre of mass; m - is the object's mass; r - is the perpendicular distance between the two axes.

The parallel axes rule also applies to the second moment of area (area moment of inertia) for a plane region

in a Cartesian coordinate system

first moment of area in the x and y directions(statical moment of area).

When x and y axis passing through the centre of gravity (centroid) the statical moments of area are equal 0

Huygens-Steiner theorem

Axis rotation

The following formulae can be used to calculate moments of the section in a co-ordinate system rotated relative to the original co-ordinate system:
= the angle of rotation (anticlockwise sense)

Principal axis, principal area moments of inertia

A coordinate system in which the product moment is zero is referred to as a set of principal axes, and the second moments of area calculated with respect to the principal axes will assume their maxima and minima.