Old Dominion University

Chapter 04
Shear Forces and Bending Moments

Engr. Muhammad Fahim

mfahi001@odu.edu
hmf_engr@yahoo.com
1
 4.2 TYPES OF BEAMS, LOADS, AND REACTIONS
Supports

FIG. 4-3 Beam supported on a wall: (a) actual construction, and (b) representation
as a roller support.

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 4.2 TYPES OF BEAMS, LOADS, AND REACTIONS
Supports

FIG. 4-3 Beam supported on a wall: Beam-to-column connection: (c) actual

construction, and (d) representation as a pin support.

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 4.2 TYPES OF BEAMS, LOADS, AND REACTIONS
Supports

FIG. 4-3 Pole anchored to a concrete pier: (e) actual construction, and
(f) representation as a fixed support

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 4.2 TYPES OF BEAMS, LOADS, AND REACTIONS
Structural Modeling

• The model should be simple enough to facilitate mathematical analysis

and yet complex enough to represent the actual behavior of the structure
with reasonable accuracy.
• For instance, the actual supports of a beam are never perfectly rigid, and
so there will always be a small amount of translation at a pin support and
a small amount of rotation at a fixed support.
• Also, supports are never entirely free of friction, and so there will always
be a small amount of restraint against translation at a roller support.
• In most circumstances, especially for statically determinate beams, these
deviations from the idealized conditions have little effect on the action of
the beam and can safely be disregarded.

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 4.2 TYPES OF BEAMS, LOADS, AND REACTIONS
Types of Loads

• The loads act in the plane of the figure, which means that all forces must
have their vectors in the plane of the figure and all couples must have
their moment vectors perpendicular to the plane of the figure.
• Furthermore, the beam itself must be symmetric about that plane, which
means that every cross section of the beam must have a vertical axis of
symmetry.
• Under these conditions, the beam will deflect only in the plane of bending
(the plane of the figure).

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 4.2 TYPES OF BEAMS, LOADS, AND REACTIONS
Internal Releases

FIG. 4-4 Types of internal member releases for two-dimensional

beam and frame members

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 4.2 TYPES OF BEAMS, LOADS, AND REACTIONS
Internal Releases: Example

FIG. 4-5 Simple beam with axial release

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 4.2 TYPES OF BEAMS, LOADS, AND REACTIONS
Internal Releases: Example

Now M = 0 at the release so reaction RB can be computed by summing moments in

the right-hand free-body diagram.
Note that reaction HA is unchanged from that reported above for the original
cantilever beam structure in Fig. 4-2b.

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 4.2 TYPES OF BEAMS, LOADS, AND REACTIONS
Internal Releases: Example

FIG. 4-7 Modified beam with overhang—add shear release

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 4.2 TYPES OF BEAMS, LOADS, AND REACTIONS
Internal Releases: Questions
• Does the TYPE of internal release matter in making a structure
determinate? For instance, if a structure is made determinate
by an axial force release, can it be made determinate by a
moment or shear release??

• Is the position of internal release important??

• What if internal release is at the support?

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 4.3 SHEAR FORCES AND BENDING MOMENTS
Sign Convention

• In the case of a beam, a positive shear force acts clockwise

against the material (Figs. 4-8b and c) and a negative shear
force acts counterclockwise against the material. Also, a
positive bending moment compresses the upper part of the
beam (Figs. 4-8b and c) and a negative bending moment
compresses the lower part.

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 4.3 SHEAR FORCES AND BENDING MOMENTS
Sign Convention

• Sign conventions for stress resultants are called deformation sign

conventions because they are based upon how the material is deformed.
• For example, an axial force producing elongation (or tension) in a bar is
positive and an axial force producing shortening (or compression) is
negative.
• Thus, the sign of an axial force depends upon how it deforms the material,
not upon its direction in space.
• By contrast, when writing equations of equilibrium we use static sign
conventions, in which forces are positive or negative according to their
directions along the coordinate axes.

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 4.3 SHEAR FORCES AND BENDING MOMENTS
Example 4.1
Example 4.2

Example 4.3

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 4.4 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LOADS, SHEAR FORCES,
AND BENDING MOMENTS

• Distributed loads and concentrated loads are positive when they act
downward on the beam and negative when they act upward. A couple
acting as a load on a beam is positive when it is counterclockwise and
negative when it is clockwise.

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 4.4 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LOADS, SHEAR FORCES,
AND BENDING MOMENTS
Distributed Loads: Shear Force

• For instance, if there is no distributed load on a segment of the beam then

dV/dx = 0 and the shear force is constant in that part of the beam.

• Also, if the distributed load is uniform along part of the beam (q = constant),
then dV/dx is also constant and the shear force varies linearly in that part of the
beam.

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 4.4 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LOADS, SHEAR FORCES,
AND BENDING MOMENTS
Distributed Loads: Shear Force

• where we are assuming that x increases as we move from point A to point B.

• The integral on the right-hand side represents the area of the loading diagram
between A and B, which in turn is equal to the magnitude of the resultant of the
distributed load acting between points A and B.
• The area of the loading diagram may be positive (if q acts downward) or negative
(if q acts upward).

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 4.4 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LOADS, SHEAR FORCES,
AND BENDING MOMENTS
Distributed Loads: Shear Force

• Because Eq. (4-4) was derived for an element of the beam subjected only
to a distributed load (or to no load), we cannot use Eq. (4-4) at a point
where a concentrated load is applied (because the intensity of load is not
defined for a concentrated load).
• For the same reason, we cannot use Eq. (4-5) if a concentrated load P acts
on the beam between points A and B.

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 4.4 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LOADS, SHEAR FORCES,
AND BENDING MOMENTS
Distributed Loads: Bending Moment

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 4.4 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LOADS, SHEAR FORCES,
AND BENDING MOMENTS
Distributed Loads: Bending Moment

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 4.4 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LOADS, SHEAR FORCES,
AND BENDING MOMENTS
Concentrated Loads

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 4.4 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LOADS, SHEAR FORCES,
AND BENDING MOMENTS
Concentrated Loads

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 4.4 RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LOADS, SHEAR FORCES,
AND BENDING MOMENTS
Loads in the Form of Couples
From equilibrium of the element in the vertical direction
we obtain V1 = 0, which shows that the shear force does not change at
the point of application of a couple.

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 4.5 SHEAR-FORCE AND BENDING MOMENT DIAGRAMS
Several Concentrated Loads

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 4.5 SHEAR-FORCE AND BENDING MOMENT DIAGRAMS
General Comments

Superposition of shear-force and bending-moment diagrams is permissible

because shear forces and bending moments in statically determinate beams are
linear functions of the applied loads.

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 4.5 SHEAR-FORCE AND BENDING MOMENT DIAGRAMS
Example 4.4
Example 4.5
Example 4.6

Example 4.7

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 PROBLEMS

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