In strength of materials course, we derive the following

differential equation:
44ddvEIqx= (6.1)
where EI is called the flexural rigidly, which is the
product of Young’s modulus of elasticity and second
moment of the cross-section with respect to centroidal
axis and perpendicular to the plane of bending, v is the
vertical defection as a function of longitudinal coordinate
x and q is the load intensity (load per unit length)
function. To completely solve this equation, we need 4
boundary conditions. However, out of these four
boundary conditions, at least one boundary condition
should be in the form of prescribed deflection and in
addition one other boundary condition should be
prescribed deflection or slope. It is not essential to
prescribe the second or third derivative of the deflection if
in place of these the slope and deflections are prescribed.
Thus, the boundary conditions on slope and deflection are
called essential boundary conditions, whilst the other
boundary conditions are called natural boundary
condition. In the following subsections, we explain the
steps of Galerkin FEM formulation.
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