SECTION 2.

Shear Deflection in Beams

1. NATURE OF SHEAR DEFLECTION

Shear stresses in a beam section cause a displacement

or sliding action on a plane normal to the axis of the
beam, as shown in the right hand view of Figure 1.
This is unlike the deflection resulting from bending in
a beam, which is shown in the left hand view of
Figure 1.
Normally deflection due to shear in the usual
beam is ignored because it represents a very small
percentage of the entire deflection. Figure 2 shows
that the deflection due to shear increases linearly as FIG. 1 Deflection in beam caused by bending moment,
the length of the beam increases, whereas the deflection left, and by shear, right.

1.4"

1.3" I I ~~---+----I-L j 17-

~~-
T::r-
=
r- P 10,000 Ibs

---t/
1O
1.2" -- "--j
1.1" -- 10"
r 1 ~==========~~
;.- I.I - - - f --

t'" Ll
1 ~bending
1.0" --

.9" --
~b-J
.8" - - a.bending --
<I
t:
I
0 .7" I
I
13OJ ~'hear
...A...
c;:: 8It
OJ .6"
0

.5" /
.4"

.3" -~---I----~---I--------+-----+-.//'----___+________t_____+___+-
,/
.2"

.1" -----/----+---___+_~~I
-: tI l
~sheor -
I
20" 40" 60" 80" 100" 120" 140" 160" 180"
Length of cantilever beam (L)

FIG. 2 Deflection caused by shear increases linearly as length of beam, but that caused by bending increases as the third
power of beam length.

2.6-1
2.6-2 I Load & Stress Analysis

the member and also the value of the shear stress (T).
50 Figure 3 shows the shear stress-strain diagram which
is similar to the usual stress-strain diagram, although
~~ 40 +------+-~=------I------I the shear yield strength is much lower than the tensile
<,
VI
a. I
yield strength of the same material. After the shear
= 33.0 kips/in' --I
~
_ _ _ Oy
30 I I yield strength is reached, the shear strain (E.) increases
!-
VI
VI
Ty = 0.5 Oy = 16.5 kips/in' rapidly and the shear strength increases because of
I I
~
VI
20 ,,= 0.3 (Poisson's ratio) strain hardening.
I I
E = 30 X 10' kips/in'
~

a
til
.s: 10 2. DETERMINING SHEAR DEFLECTION
(/)
E, = 11.5 X 10 J kips/in'
I I The theory of deflection caused by shear stress is
0
0 0.10 0,20 0.30 rather simple. However, the actual determination of
Shear strain (f,), in/In the shear stresses and their distribution across the
FIG. 3 Shear stress-strain diagram. beam section (which two factors cause the deflection)
is more difficult. In all cases, some kind of a form
factor (a) must be determined, and this is simply a
due to bending increases very rapidly as a third power matter of expressing the distribution of shear stress
of the length of the beam. For this reason the deflec- throughout the web of the section. Since there is
tion due to shear is not an important factor except practically no shear stress in the flange area, this par-
for extremely short spans where deflection due to ticular area has negligible effect on the deflection due
bending drops off to a very small value. to shear (~.).
The deflection due to shear is dependent entirely The following formulas are valid for several types
on the shear distribution across the cross-section of of beams and loading:

-j S f-
__ \
-----L_

~ = eL
(05S-+0)
() = e,

Shear deflection of cantilever

beam with concentrated load

T T
E, = f,
or s, = E,
PlY
T max = T 0'1 (Y
A

TL P L IY Shear stress (T) a = area beyond neutral axis

f, L=
E, A E, y = distance between center of
gravity of this area and neutral

... A =
axis of entire cross-section
total area of section
I = moment of inertia of section
t = total thickness of web

'Tm o x ayA
E, = shear modulus of elasticity
Form factor IY -I-t~
f, = shear strain
T = shear stress

FIG. 4 Form factor for shear deflection in built-up beams.

 Shear Defle ction in Beams / 2. 6-3

sim ply supporte d bea m; uniform load (w)

~8 = ~v ~2E(X . ~s
(1)
f
d

1
sim ply supported beam ; conce ntrated load (P)

~8 - T4 11\, (X
E
,
.•. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • (2)
FIG . 5 Be a m se ctions fo r which Eq. 5 applies.

cantilever beam; uniform load (w)

W L 2 (X T he slope of the d eflection curve (e) is eq u al at

~. - 2 A E (3)
!.o , each cross-section to the shearing strain (Es ) at the
centroid of this cross-section. (X is a factor with which
cantilever beam; concentrated load (P) the av erage shearing stress (Tn,) must be mu lti plied
in ord er to obtain the shear ing stress (Tmax) at the
~H = PAL E (X

s
•..••..•• • • • •..•••.••••••• (4)
cen troid of the cross-sections.
On th is basis, the form factor ((X) for an I beam
or box beam would be:
wh ere :
P total load, lbs
A area of entire section
modulus of elasticity in shear where F igure 5 applies. D on't compute area ( A) in
(steel = 12,000,000 psi) th is formu la because it will cancel out when used
w distributed load, Ibsjlinear in. in the formulas for shear deflection.

Wel d ing was used e xte nsive ly in th e

fabricat ion and erectio n of t his stee l-
fra me d , 8-st o ry, ba lco nize d a p artme nt
b uilding which featur e s ca ntilev ere d cross
bea ms in the up per stories. The bu ild ing
was des ig ned ba sica lly as a rig id struc-
ture with mai n beams d esig ned p la stica lly
and light X-brace s used to accommod ate
wind moments. The welded steel de sign
cost 16¢ / sq ft le ss tha n a reinfo rced
co ncrete buil d ing wo uld ha ve .