9.

3 The Slope-Deflection
Equations
The slope-deflection method relies on the use of the slope-deflection equation, which relate
the rotation of an element (both rotation at the ends and rigid body rotation) to the total
moments at either end. The ultimate goal is to find the end moments for each member in
the structure as a function of all of the DOFs associated with both ends of the member.
From there, we can apply equilibrium conditions at all of the joints to solve for the unknown
rotations. This is the system of equations that we will have to solve, where the equations
are the equilibrium equations for each node and the unknowns are the translations and
rotations of the nodes.
So, the first step is that we need an expression for the moment at each end of an
arbitrary member in an indeterminate structure in terms of the rotations and translations of
the nodes at either end. If there are loads between the nodes (i.e. distributed or point loads
or moments along the length of the member), then we will need a way to consider the effect
of those as well.

Such an arbitrary member is shown in Figure 9.2. This member is a smaller part of a

larger structure, so at each end there is a section cut and at that cut, there is a shear force
and a moment. We will be most concerned about the moment at the ends. At the left end,
this moment is called MABMAB, where the first letter in the subscript is the node that the
moment is applied to (in this case node A) and the second letter is the node at the other
end of the member (in this case node B). At the right end, the moment at the cut is called
MBAMBA since the moment is applied at node B, and the other end of the member is at
point A. This naming convention allows us to distinguish between the moments at either
end of a member (e.g. MABMAB and MBAMBA) and between moments from different
members that all must be in equilibrium at a single node (e.g. MABMAB is the moment
applied to node A by member AB and MACMAC would be the moment applied to node A
by member AC).