Mechanics of Materials III:

Beam Bending
Dr. Wayne Whiteman
Senior Academic Professional and Director of the Office of Student Services
Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Module 22 Learning Outcome
• Solve an inelastic beam bending problem for
unsymmetrical beams
Inelastic Bending for Beams that are symmetric about the y –axis, but
unsymmetrical about the x-axis
Worksheet:
A T-beam is made of structural steel with a cross section shown below,
and may be treated as an elasto-plastic material.
a) Determine the maximum elastic moment that the beam can support.
b) Determine the maximum moment that the beam can support just
before it reaches a fully plastic condition.
150 mm
Structural Steel
50 mm

250 MPa
150 mm

0.001 mm/mm
50 mm
Beams that are symmetric about the y –axis, but
unsymmetrical about the x-axis
y
For unsymmetric beams, the
10 in neutral axis shifts away from
2 in the fibers that first experience
2 in inelastic action. Therefore the
x For fully plastic, the neutral axis migrates away
25 in area above the from the furthest fiber from
neutral axis is equal the neutral axis.
to the area below
the neutral axis.

Fully Elastic Fully Plastic The stress-strain diagrams

Partially Plastic
y y y may differ in the inelastic
σx σx σx region for tension and
M compression. But these
M M N.A. x
N.A. x differences may be reasonably
N.A. x neglected for most real
problems.
b) Determine the maximum moment that the beam can support just
before it reaches a fully plastic condition. y σx = 250 MPa
150 mm 250 N/mm2(150mm)50mm
50 mm =1,875,000 N
x
Neutral axis
250 N/mm2(50mm)150mm
150 mm =1,875,000 N

50 mm

For fully plastic, the M FULLY


area above the PLASTIC
neutral axis is equal  150 
to the area below  1 , 875 , 000  
the neutral axis.  2 

 187 , 500 , 000 N  mm  187 , 500 N  m

ANS