SHEAR FORCE AND BENDING MOMENT DISTRIBUTION OVER

AIRCRAFT WING
All aircraft are subjected to dynamic loads, when they fly.To convert a dynamic
system to an equivalent static system one must apply D’Alembert’s principle of
inertial forces. This is just a fancy way of manipulating Newtons law
from ∑F=ma  to  ∑F- ma = 0. Once one converts a dynamical system into
an equivalent static system, statics principles of structural analysis apply. In the
example below, we will show how we can derive shear and bending moment
diagrams of a dynamically loaded airplane.
We will use the following data to determine the shear and bending moment
distribution along a wing of the aircraft:

 The wing weighs 800 lbf and is uniformly distributed

 The wing is 20 feet in length
 The aircraft experiences a 9G upward load

knowing the data described above, one should be able to acquire the shear and
bending moment distributions along the wing of the spitfire aircraft.

STEP 1: Make a cut and draw a Free body diagram with all of the external
forces acting on the body.

A free body diagram of the wing is illustrated above with the 800 lbf load
uniformly distributed along the wing.

STEP 2: Determine the location of the center of gravity of the mass

In this case the location of the center of gravity of the wing is trivial because the
weight of the wing is assumed to be uniformly distributed. Because of
symmetry, the center of gravity is located in the middle of the wing at 10 feet
from either end.
STEP 3: Make a cut and draw two free body diagrams (1) the force
diagram and (2) an effective force diagram:

The system above is equivalent to ∑F=ma.

STEP 4: Convert the system to an equivalent static system using
D’Alembert’s principle:

By moving the effective force diagram to the left side of the equal sign, one has
converted the dynamical system into an equivalent static system. One can
remove the negative sign by flipping the acceleration vector. Remember,
acceleration is a vector quantity and the negative of a vector gets flipped the
other direction. This makes sense because if an object accelerates upward, the
force felt on the body is the opposite direction.
STEP 5: Combine the weight and inertia forces
To be able to draw a shear and bending moment diagram of the system above,
the inertia force needs to be converted to an equivalent system of forces and
then combined with the force diagram. To do this, one has to realize that every
part of a mass is acted on by the inertial force AND it effects the forces parallel
to its direction. The figure below illustrates what I mean.
Every force in the force diagram parallel to the inertial force, i.e. forces in the
vertical direction, needs to be multiplied by the acceleration inertial load factor.
Essentially what you are doing is multiplying the mass distribution of the body
by the inertial acceleration to get an equivalent system of forces. The mass of
the wing happens to be uniformly distributed across its length, but it can be
point masses as well or trianglular distributed masses. The point is, the inertial
load is a multiplying factor for loads parallel to its direction. Once one converts
the inertial load to an equivalent system of forces, the diagrams can be
combined using the principle of superposition. The resulting diagram is
illustrated below:

One can now perform a static analysis of the system!!

STEP 6: Determine the reaction forces using the equations of equilibrium
The reaction forces are determined below:

STEP 5: Draw shear and bending moment diagram

Using the static equivalent of the dynamic system, the shear and bending
moment diagram can be constructed as illustrated below. Crack open a
mechanics of materials reference and constructing a shear and bending moment
diagram for this case should be a breeze.