CVE431 STRUCTURAL MECHANICS II

2021-2022 SESSION

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Department of Civil Engineering

Lecturer: Prof Anthony Nkem Ede Lecture hours: Tuesday 10 am - 12noon

STATICALLY INDETERMINATE STRUCTURES

Flexibility and stiffness method

Statically Indeterminate Structures

Summary of resolution methods

The steps involved in the method of consistent deformations

follow:
1. The number of redundant in the structure are determined.
2. Enough redundant to form a determinate structure are removed.
3. The displacements that the applied loads cause in the determinate structure at the
points where the redundant have been removed are calculated.
4. The displacements at these points in the determinate structure, due to the redundant,
are obtained.
5. At each point where a redundant has been removed, the sum of the displacements
calculated in steps 3 and 4 must be equal to the displacement that exists at that point in
the actual indeterminate structure. The redundant are evaluated using these
relationships.
6. Once the redundant are known, the remaining reactions are determined using the
equations of equilibrium.
PRINCIPLE OF SUPERPOSITION: We consistently make use of it in our examples.

EXAMPLE 18 The cantilever AB shown in Fig. 22(a) carries a uniformly distributed load
and is provided with an additional support at its free end. Determine the reaction at the
additional support.

FIGURE 22 Propped cantilever

Suppose that the reaction at the support B is RB. Using the principle of superposition
we can represent the combined effect of the distributed load and the reaction RB as the
sum of the two loads acting separately as shown in Fig. (b) and (c). Also, since the
vertical deflection of B in Fig. (a) is zero, it follows that the vertical downward deflection
of B in Fig. (b) must be numerically equal to the vertically upward deflection of B in Fig.
(c). Therefore using the results for cantilever loaded uniformly and with a point load at
the tip respectively,

whence
It is now possible to determine the reactions RA and MA at the built-in end using the
equations of simple statics. Taking moments about A for the beam in Fig. (a) we have

Resolving vertically

In the solution of Ex. 18 we selected RB as the redundancy; in fact, any one of the three
support reactions, MA, RA or RB, could have been chosen. Let us suppose that MA is
taken to be the redundant reaction as shown below

We now represent the combined loading of Fig. 22(a) as the sum of the separate
loading systems shown in Fig. 23(a) and (b) and work in terms of the rotations of the
beam at A due to the distributed load and the applied moment, MA. Clearly, since there
is no rotation at the built-in end of a cantilever, the rotations produced separately in Fig.
23(a) and (b) must be numerically equal but opposite in direction. Using the using
results obtained previously for standard deflection and rotations, it may be shown that
and

Since

then

STATICALLY INDETERMINATE BEAMS

Beams are statically indeterminate generally because of their support systems. In this
category are propped cantilevers, fixed beams and continuous beams. A propped
cantilever and some fixed beams are analysed 1 st with using either the principle of
superposition or moment-area methods. Then we will apply other methods to some
examples of statically indeterminate beams.

EXAMPLE 5 Calculate the support reaction at B in the propped cantilever shown in Fig.
14.
In this example it is unnecessary to employ the procedures described previously to
calculate the degree of statical indeterminacy since this is obvious by inspection.
Thus the removal of the vertical support at B would result in a statically determinate
cantilever beam so that we deduce that the degree of statical indeterminacy is 1.
Furthermore, it is immaterial whether we use the principle of virtual work or
complementary energy in the solution since, for linearly elastic systems, they result in
the
same equations.
First, we shall adopt the complementary energy approach.
The total complementary energy, C, of the beam is given by

i
in which vB is the vertical displacement of the cantilever at B (in this case vB =0 since
the beam is supported at B).
From the principle of the stationary value of the total complementary energy we have

ii
Which becomes
 iii
The bending moment, M, at any section of the beam is given by

Hence

Substituting in Eq. (iii) for M and ∂M/∂RB we have

iv
from which

The algebra in the above solution would have been slightly simplified if we had
assumed
an origin for x at the end B of the beam. Equation (iv) would then become

which again gives

Having obtained RB, the remaining support reactions follow from statics.

An alternative approach is to release the structure so that it becomes statically

determinate by removing the support at B and then to calculate the vertical
displacement at B due to the applied load using, say, the unit load method which, as we
have seen, is based on the principle of virtual work or, alternatively, complementary
energy. We then calculate the vertical displacement at B produced by RB acting alone,
again, say, by the unit load method. The sum of the two displacements must be zero
since the beam at B is supported, so that we obtain an equation in which RB is the
unknown. It is not essential to select the support reaction at B as the release. We could,
in fact, choose the fixing moment at A in which case the beam would become a simply
supported beam which, of course, is statically determinate. We would then determine
the moment at A required to restore the slope of the beam at A to zero.

Suppose that the vertical displacement at the free end of the released cantilever due
to the uniformly distributed load is vB,0. Then,

v
In which

Hence, substituting for Ma and M1 in Eq. (v), we have

which gives

vi
We now apply a vertically downward unit load at the B end of the cantilever from which
the distributed load has been removed. The displacement, vB,1, due to this unit load is
then, from Eq. (v)

from which

vii

The displacement due to RB at B is −RBvB,1 (RB acts in the opposite direction to the
unit load) so that the total displacement, vB, at B due to the uniformly distributed load
and RB is, using the principle of superposition

(viii)
Substituting for vB,0 and vB,1 from Eqs (vi) and (vii) we have

which gives

as before.

This approach is the flexibility method.

In Eq. (viii) vB,1 is the displacement at B in the direction of RB due to a unit load at B
applied in the direction of RB (either in the same or opposite directions).
For a beam that has a degree of statical indeterminacy greater than 1 there will be a
series of equations of the same form as Eq. (viii) but which will contain the
displacements
at a specific point produced by the redundant forces. We shall therefore employ the
flexibility coefficient akj (k=1, 2, . . . , r; j=1, 2, . . . , r) which we defined previously as
the displacement at a point k in a given direction produced by a unit load at a point j in a
second direction. Thus, in the above, vB,1 =a11 so that Eq. (viii) becomes

EXAMPLE 6 Determine the support reaction at B in the propped cantilever shown in

Fig. 15(a).

As in the last example, the cantilever in Fig. 15(a) has a degree of statical
indeterminacy
equal to 1. Again we shall choose the support reaction at B, R1, as the indeterminacy;
the released or primary structure is shown in Fig. 15(b). Initially we require the
displacement, vB,0, at B due to the applied load, W, at C. This may readily be found
using the unit load method. Thus:
 i

Similarly, the displacement at B due to the unit load at B in the direction of R1 (Fig.15(c))
is

Hence, since,

(ii)
we have

from which

Alternatively, we could select the fixing moment, MA (=M2), at A as the release. The
primary structure is then the simply supported beam shown in Fig. 16(a) where RA
=−W/2 and RB =3W/2.
The rotation at A may be found by any of the methods previously described. They
include the integration of the second-order differential equation of bending, the moment-
area method and the unit load method (in this case it would be a unit moment). Thus,
using the unit load method and applying a unit moment at A as shown in Fig. 16(b) we
have, from the principle of virtual work

iii

Substituting in Eq. (iii) we have

from which

The flexibility coefficient, θ22, i.e. the rotation at A (point 2), due to a unit moment at A is
obtained from Fig. 16(b). Thus

Therefore, since the rotation at A in the actual structure is zero

or

which gives

Considering now the statical equilibrium of the beam in Fig. 15(a) we have, taking
moments about A

so that

as before.

Structures with Several Redundant

The steps involved in the method are as follow:
1. The number of redundant in the structure are determined.
2. Enough redundant to form a determinate structure are removed.
3. The displacements that the applied loads cause in the determinate structure at the
points where the redundant have been removed are calculated.
4. The displacements at these points in the determinate structure, due to the redundant,
are obtained.
5. At each point where a redundant has been removed, the sum of the displacements
calculated in steps 3 and 4 must be equal to the displacement that exists at that point in
the actual indeterminate structure. The redundant are evaluated using these
relationships.
6. Once the redundant are known, the remaining reactions are determined using the
equations of equilibrium.
The method of consistent deformations can be applied to structures with two or more
redundant. For example, the beam in Fig.a is indeterminate to the second degree and
has two redundant reactions.

If the reactions at B and C are selected to be the redundant, then the determinate
structure obtained by removing these supports is the cantilever beam, shown in Fig.b.
To this determinate structure we apply separately the given load (Fig.c) and the
redundant RB and RC, one at a time (Fig.d and e).

Since the deflections at B and C in the original beam are zero, the algebraic sum of the deflections in
Fig. c, d, and e at these same points must also vanish. Thus

Example
Determine the reactions for the beam shown in Figure below and draw its shear force and bending
moment diagrams.
It can be seen from the figure that there are four reactions, one more than that required for a stable
structure. The reaction RC can be removed to make the structure determinate. We know that the
deflection at support C of the beam is zero. One can determine the deflection due to the applied load
on the cantilever in Fig. b. In the same way the deflection due the redundant reaction on the
cantilever (Fig. c) can be determined.

The compatibility equation gives

Applying the moment area method