CE 201C Mechanics of Materials I

Lecture Note – 02: Relationships among bending moment (M), shear force
(S) and load intensity (P) in a beam
Sign convention:
1. x-axis is placed along the axis of the beam and +ve direction is from left to right.
2. Load intensity p is considered +ve downwards.
3. Shear force, S, is considered +ve when acting in a clockwise direction.
4. Bending moment, M, is considered +ve when hogging.
(Please note: Gere & Timoshenko use sagging +ve for bending moment. That is the US
practice.)

P(x)

S M+δM

M
x δx S+δS

Fig.1
Load intensity p, shear force S, and bending moment M vary along the beam. They are functions
of x. p = p(x); S = S(x); M = M(x).Consider an element of the beam starting at x = x; and having
a length δx. (Fig. 1). The shear force and the bending moment at the left face of this element is
S and M. As we move along the x-axis by a distance δx, the values of S and M also increase by
δS and δM respectively.

𝛿𝑆
𝐸𝑞 𝑚 , ↑, 𝑆 − (𝑆 + 𝛿𝑆) − 𝑝𝛿𝑥 = 0; → = −𝑝
𝛿𝑥
𝑑𝑆
Consider the limit as we make δx=>0. We get: = −𝑝
𝑑𝑥

This simply says that the slope of the shear force diagram at a point is equal in magnitude to
the load intensity at the point, but opposite in sign.

𝛿𝑥 𝛿𝑀 𝛿𝑥
𝐴, ↷, (𝑀 + 𝛿𝑀) − 𝑀 + (𝑆 + 𝛿𝑆)𝛿𝑥 + 𝑝𝛿𝑥 = 0; → = −𝑆 − 𝛿𝑆 − 𝑝
2 𝛿𝑥 2
𝑑𝑀
Consider the limit as we make δx=>0. We get: = −𝑆
𝑑𝑥

This says that the slope of the bending moment diagram at a point is equal in magnitude to the
value of the shear force at the point, but opposite in sign.

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CE 201C Mechanics of Materials I

These two relations are very useful when we construct shear force and bending moment
diagrams. Very often, in simple cases, we can sketch the SFD and the BMD without any
calculations!

Above two equations can be integrated to yield two more useful relations. Consider two
locations in the beam at x = x1 and x = x2 (Fig. 2). Let the values of the shear force and bending
moment at x = x1 be S1 and M1, and those at x = x2 be S2 and M2. Let us integrate the first
equation from x1 to x2.

P(x)

S1 S2

M1 M2

x = x1 x = x2

Fig. 2
𝑆2 𝑥2 𝑥2 𝑥2

∫ 𝑑𝑆 = ∫ −𝑝𝑑𝑥 ⇒ S2 − S1 = − ∫ 𝑝𝑑𝑥 ⇒ S2 = S1 − ∫ 𝑝𝑑𝑥

𝑆1 𝑥1 𝑥1 𝑥1

We can give a simple interpretation to the integral on the right hand side. It is the area under
the load intensity diagram from x1 to x2. This is equal to the total load acting on the beam
between x1 and x2. Note that even if concentrated loads are present we could have included
them in this analysis by considering them to be loads distributed over a small length. So we
write the above relation as:

S2= S1 - {Total load between x1 and x2}

In a similar manner we can integrate the second relation to get:
𝑀2 𝑥2 𝑥2 𝑥2

∫ 𝑑𝑀 = ∫ −𝑆𝑑𝑥 ⇒ M2 − M1 = − ∫ 𝑆𝑑𝑥 ⇒ M2 = M1 − ∫ 𝑆𝑑𝑥

𝑀1 𝑥1 𝑥1 𝑥1

The integral on the right hand side is the area under the shear force diagram from x1 to x2.

M2= M1 - {Area under the SFD between x1 and x2}

In class we will consider a few examples where these relations can be used very effectively to
easily construct shear force diagrams (SFD) and bending moment diagrams (BMD).

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