Bending a Cantilevered Beam

Bram Sadlik 2 Feb. 2005

Objective

We look at the idealized case of a mass-less cantilever beam with a point force acting on its far end, and derive an equation for the deection of such a beam. Although this calculation has been done many times, here I describe it a 1st year level without any assumptions of previous knowledge of mechanics (Calculus is inevitable...).

The Bending Moment

A cantilever beam can be imagined as a series of springy hinges, connected tip to tail, with the rst hinge fastened to a rigid wall (Fig. 1).
Top view of single hinge

Wall

Direction of bending

Figure 1: Top view of a single spring loaded hinge. A series of

hinges connected head to tail can be used to visualize a beam.

The twisting force acting on a given hinge (otherwise known as the torque) is given by, = r F, (1) where stands for torque, r is the vector pointing from the hinge to the point where F , the force, acts. The -symbol stands for cross product, which may be familiar to you from Linear algebra. It means that points in a direction normal to the plane created by r and F and has the magnitude, | | = |r| |F | sin(), where is the angle subtended between r and F (Fig. 2). 1 (2)

rF = r F

Figure 2: The cross product. We make two approximations that simplify the equations. First, we say that a bent beam is really only a two dimensional object, so that we can just assume that the torque acts in a direction normal to the page. From now on we will call this the -direction (since it is to the z-axis). Next, we say that since the z beam isnt deected much, the angle between its tip and the horizontal is small, and therefore the angle between the force vector, F and r is approximately 90o (Fig. 3).
y z x

Horizontal

Cantilevered beam Wall Angle aproximately 90o for small decections

Figure 3: The orientation of the coordinate system: x along the

beam, y in the vertical direction, and z into the page. The angle between a cantilevered beam and vertical force is approximately 90o for small displacements.

These approximations lead to, = |r||F |. z Or, if we just look at magnitudes, asserting that points along z we get, | | = |r||F |. (4) (3)

Here we note that a large r with a small F can produce the same toqrue as a small r with a large F . When torque refers to bending of rigid objects, we refer to it as the bending moment (symbol M ). The magnitude of the bending moment at a given point along a rigid cantilevered beam is given by, |M | = |r||F |. (5)

The bending moment is exactly like a torque, except that we are dealing with continuous material it doesnt bend at specic points (or hinges). The tendency to twist is replaced with a tendency to bend at the point of interest. So, rather than using we use M - to make it clear that this is bending and not twisting. 2

Mechanical Equilibrium

After loading the beam we see that it bends, at rst we observe small oscillations, but eventually these die-out and the beam is stationary. This means that the beam has reached mechanical equilibrium. The torque from the external bending moment is balanced by torques from the internal stresses in the beam. M + {All internal stresses leading to torques} = 0 (6) To understand how the internal stress works, imagine that the beam only bends at one point along its length (Fig. 4). From Eq. 5, the magnitude of the bending moment at this point is given by M = F (L x), (7)

where L is the length of the beam, x is the position of the kink along the beam, and F is the force. This moment is balanced by internal stress shown in the diagram as small springs. Springs near the top of the beam are extended while those near the bottom are compressed. Between these two types of springs there is a neutral surface which is not extended or contracted. Each spring applies a torque around the neutral axis. The further the spring from this axis, the larger the torque it applies. This torque tends to bend the beam back to its horizontal position. In this way the horizontal forces applied by the springs are translated into vertical forces (opposing the hanging mass).
Kink

x l F Enlarged view of kink

Neutral surface

Figure 4: A beam which has been bent at single point (kink),

illustrating the internal stresses at this kink and the bending moment M = F (L x).

A similar thing happens when you try to pull a nail out with a crow bar. The force you apply on the crow bar is perpendicular to the force applied on the nail, and the further the nail from the axis of rotation the harder it is to pull out. In this analogy the nail is the spring, and the bending moment is the torque on the crow-bars end. The axis of rotation is around the neck of the crow bar.(Fig. 5)

Figure 5: A crow-bar translates a force in the vertical direction

into a horizontal force.

The Bending Shape and Deection

Usually beams bend uniformly along their entire length, rather than at a single point. The deection of the beam is actually quite complicated. However if we assume small deections, the local shape of the beam can be approximated by a circle. That is, at any point along the beam we can draw a tangent circle with radius R. (Fig. 6) We treat the beam like a multilayered sandwich of springy surfaces (Fig. 7). Each layer behaves like a wide ribbon of fabric. You can bend individual layers very easily but it is harder to stretch them. Next we will show how the sandwiching of these layers, couples forces between neighboring layers and makes the beam rigid to bending. Fig. 3 shows a loaded cantilever beam. Fig. 6 shows an enlarged segment of this beam with an exaggerated bend. The line NN is a neutral surface, its length doesnt change when the beam is bent. Surfaces above NN are stretched during bending, while surfaces below it are contracted, just like we saw with the springs 1 . This extension and contraction of surfaces above and below NN is what gives the beam its vertical springiness. Consider an isolated layer of thickness d and a distance from the line NN, marking the neutral surface (Fig. 6). When at rest, the length of this layer is equal to the length of NN, but when the beam is bent, the layers length becomes l + l. From geometry in Fig. 6 we see that, = dl, (8) R = l. Dividing through we get l = . (9) R l The layer is stretched by l from its rest length, l. The general form of Hookes Law (HL) relates the stress to the strain, F l =E , A l (10)

1 If you want to do an experiment, take a rubber eraser and place it on the table with its large face down, mark a bunch of parallel lines on its side perpendicular to the table. Now bend it up. The lines will no longer be parallel to each other. They get closer to each other along the top surface and farther from each other along the bottom.

A
t/2

N
t/2

R N
D

O
Figure 6: A small segment of the beam, with exaggerated bending. The radius of curvature is R, and is taken to the arc N N , the neutral surface, which is halfway down the beam. The line OA BD, and represents the length of the segment before bending. The small arrows between BD and CO represent the extension and contraction of the beam. Above N N the beam is extended, below N N it is contracted.
y

x
Neutral surface N N

w
z

Figure 7: A cut through the beam shows the layered structure used for solving. Note the orietation shown with the coordinate system. where F is the applied stress, l is the strain, and E is Youngs modulus. A is A l the cross section, l is the length, and l is the extension of the material. We

can derive the more common form by multiplying Eq. 10 by A, F = EA l.[2] l (11)

Therefore the magnitude of the force exerted by the layer on each one of its ends due to this stretch is given by Eq. 11, dF = dAEl , l (12)

where dA is the cross sectional area of a single layer and E is Youngs Modulus. Substituting Eq. 9 into Eq. 12 we get, dF = dAE . R (13)

The cross section area dA of a single layer is given by the product of its width with its height (Fig. 7), dA = wd. (14) Substituting this into Eq. 13 we get, dF = Ew d. R (15)

Now that we have the force exerted by a single layer we can calculate the torque due to such a force. The magnitude of the torque is given by |r||F | since 90o . Substituting this into the mechanical equilibrium condition we get, F ((L x) =
crosssection

dF =

Ew 2 d. R crosssection

(16)

Remember, a torque is balanced by a torque, thats why we must multiply dF by , the distance between the th layer and the neutral layer. We can turn this sum into a denite integral with limits given by the top and bottom surface of the beam, t/2, t/2,
t/2

F (L x) =
t/2

Ew 2 Ew 3 d = R R 3

t/2 t/2

Ewt3 . 12R

(17)

From Eq. 17 we can get the curvature (Dened as 1/R), 1 12F (L x) = . R Ewt3 (18)

Note that this equation makes intuitive sense, the curvature decreases as the beam becomes thicker, wider or stier (Youngs Modulus) and increases as the force increases and as the wall is approached (the last statement is less obvious). We can get the shape and deection of the beam by recalling that the curvature of a function is given by its second derivative. The slope is the rst deriv.
Eq. 11 we see that the larger the cross section A, the more force we need to keep l constant. We also see that a longer piece of material stretches by l more easily than a short piece.
2 From

and the slope of the slope (or curvature) is given by the deriv. of the slope or second deriv. 1 d2 (19) = 2 (f unction) R dx So that we can write: dy 2 12F (L x) = , (20) dx2 Ewt3 where we have replaced 1/R with the second derivative of y, the deection at point x along the beam. If you dont get this, you can think of the beam as dening some line on the plane. This line can be treated like a function where deections (y-coordinates) are related to position (x-coordinates). (Fig. 8) In

y x y = f (x) Cantilever
Figure 8: The shape of the beam can be described as a function on the xy-plane. order to get the deection of the beam at a point x we multiply through by dx2 and integrate twice w.r.t. x, y(x) = d2 y = 12F (L x) 2 12F dx = 3 Ewt Ewt3 x3 Lx2 2 6 (21)

The deection at the beams end is given by substituting x = L, y=4 F L3 . Ewt3 (22)

In our case the force F was supplied by a hanging mass so, y=4 (mg)L3 Ewt3 (23)

where mg is the weight of the mass. (The minus sign accounts for the fact that F is pointing down.)

Conclusion

We found an approximate equation describing the deection of a cantilever beam with a rectangular cross section when a point mass is hung from its end. The equation holds in the limit of small deections. Although the vector calculus and l=knowledge of mechanics is minimal a solid background in calculus is required to follow the derivation.