64 Structural Engineer’s Pocket Book

Continuous beam bending formulae

Moments of inertia are constant and all spans of L metres are equal. W is the total load on one
span (in kN) from either distributed or point loads.

Reaction = coefficient × W

Moment = coefficient × W × L
w 0.125 w

0.070 0.070

0.375
0.375

1.250

w 0.100 w 0.100 w

0.080 0.025 0.080

1.100
0.400

1.100

0.400
w 0.107 w 0.071 w 0.107 w

0.077 0.036 0.036 0.077

0.929
0.393

1.143

1.143

0.393
w w

0.188
0.156 0.156
0.313
0.313

1.375

w w w

0.150 0.150

0.175 0.100 0.175

1.150
0.350

1.150

0.350

w w w w

0.161 0.107 0.161

0.170 0.116 0.116 0.170

0.894
0.339

1.214

1.214

0.339

w w w w
2 2 2 2
0.167
0.111 0.111
0.330
0.330

1.330

w w w w w w
2 2 2 2 2 2
0.133 0.133
0.122 0.033 0.122
1.133
0.367

1.133

0.367

w w w w w w w w
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
0.143 0.096 0.143
0.119 0.056 0.056 0.119
0.905
0.357

1.190

0.190

0.357