Chapter Five

Bending

Shear and moment diagram

Beams

Members that are slender and support loadings that are applied
perpendicular to their longitudinal axis.

Often these beams categorised as how they are supported.

Because of applied loads, beams develop an internal shear force and

bending moment that vary from point to point along the axis.

In order to design the beam for specific application, it is necessary to

determine the maximum shear and moment in the beam.

The shear and moment diagram can be plotted on the graphs called
shear and moment diagrams.

Shear and moment can also be used to determine the deflection of a

beam and to calculate the amount of energy stored in the beam.

Beam sign convention

Before presenting a method for determining the shear and moment as a

function of arbitrary distance from the end of the beam, it is important to
establish ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ internal shear force and bending
moment.
Procedure for analysis

Draw free body diagram and determine all support reactions. Resolve
the forces into components acting perpendicular/parallel to the beam’s
axis.

Select position coordinate, x such that each coordinate extends into a

region of beam located between concentrated forces, couples,
discontinuous/distributed loading.

Make sure M and V are acting in their positive sense.

Use eqbm. eqns to determine V and M as function of x.

Plot V against x and M against x.

Arrange with free body diagram, followed by V-x and M-x.

Example 5.1
Draw shear and moment diagram for the beam shown in figure below.

Example 5.2
Draw shear and moment diagram for the beam shown in figure below.

Example 5.3
Draw shear and moment diagram for the beams shown in figures below.
Graphical method to construct shear and moment diagram

In case where several loads are applied, the following two eqns provide
a convenient means for quickly plotting the shear and moment diagrams

dV dM
=−w (x ) =V
dx dx
Eqn 1 Eqn 2

For eqn 1:

Slope of shear diagram = - Distributed load intensity at

at each point each point

Change in shear = - Area under the distributed loading

For eqn 2:

Slope of moment diagram at each point = Shear at each point

Change in moment = Area under the shear diagram

ΔM =∫ V ( x)dx
The table shows some common loading cases. Please do not memorize,
study carefully how it is constructed.

Bending deformation of a straight member

When a bending moment is applied, it tends to distort the member into

the pattern shown.

The longitudinal lines become curve and the vertical transverse lines
remain straight yet undergo a rotation.

The neutral surface is the surface that will not undergo changes

Assumptions

Neutral surface doesn’t change. Rather, the moment will change the line
into a curve

Cross section of the beam remains plane and perpendicular to the

longitudinal axis during deformation

Any deformation of the cross section within its own plane is neglected

In order to show how the distortion is, we isolate a segment of the

material, x

This segment is shown in figure below.

Any line segment x located on the neutral surface will not change in
length, where as s, located distance y above neutral surface will
contract and become s’.

The normal strain is then found to be

y
ε=−
ρ
This result indicates that the longitudinal strain depends on the location y
on the cross section and radius of curvature of the beam’s longitudinal
axis at the point.

In other words, the longitudinal strain varies linearly with y from neutral
axis.
Contraction occurs above neutral axis while elongation occurs below
neutral axis.

The maximum strain occurs at he outermost, located a distance c from

the neutral axis, so we have

y
()
ε=− ε max
c

This normal strain is dependent upon on the assumptions made with

regards to the deformation.

If only a moment is applied, then we can assume that this moment

causes a normal stress only in the longitudinal axis. All other
components of normal and shear stress are zero.

By Poisson ratio’s definition, cross sectional dimensions above the

neutral axis becomes smaller while the lower becomes larger.
Flexure formula

This section develops a relationship that relates the longitudinal stress

distribution in a beam to the internal resultant loading moment acting on
the beam cross section.

Assume that the material behaves elastically, Hooke’s law is applicable.

Using Hooke’s law, a linear variation of normal strain must be the

consequence of a linear variation in normal stress. So we can write

y
σ =− () σ
c max
From this equation, we can derive the general form of equation of max
and  in terms of resultant internal moment, M, moment of inertia of the
cross sectional area, I, perpendicular distance from/about the neutral
axis, c or y.

Mc My
σ max = σ=
I I
Either of the formula above is referred as flexure formula

It is used to determine the normal stress in a straight member having a

cross section that is symmetrical with respect to an axis and the moment
is applied perpendicular to the axis.

Example 5.4

The simply supported beam has a cross-sectional area as shown.

Determine the absolute maximum bending stress in the beam and draw
the stress distribution over the cross section at this location.
Example 5.5

The beam shown in figure has a cross sectional area in the shape of a
channel. Determine the maximum bending stress that occurs in the
beam at section a-a.

Design of Prismatic Beams for Bending

The design of beams is usually controlled by the maximum absolute values of
bending moment, Mmax that will occur in the beam. The largest nominal bending
stress max is found at the surface of the beam in critical section where Mmax occurs.
Rewriting the equation,

|M|max c |M|max
σm= =
I S
A safe design would require m  all , thus Smin = Mmax/all., where S is known as the
allowable section modulus.

Example 5.6

A 5-m long simply supported steel beam AD is to carry the distributed and
concentrated loading
s as shown in figure below. Knowing that the allowable normal stress to be used is
160MPa, determine the minimum allowable section modulus