MIT School of Engineering, Pune

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Shear Stresses

Prepared by

Prof. Ganesh H. Kekan

Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
MIT School of Engineering

1
 Introduction
• When beams is in state of pure bending, the only stresses in the
beam are due to bending moments.
• In the practical cases, the beam carry loads which produce both
bending moment and shear force. This is called non uniform
bending.
• In these cases, both normal and shear stresses are induced in
beams.
• Normal stresses are determined by flexural formula.
• In this topic, we will find shear stresses in beams and their
distribution across the section which helps us to know its maximum
value with in safe limits.

2
 Introduction
• It is observed that in most cases, the effect of shear stress is quite
small as compared to the effect of bending stress and may be
ignored. But in some cases, it may be desirable to consider its effect
also.
• In most of the cases, bending stresses are considered for design of
beams and checked for shear stresses.
• A shear force in beam at any c/s set up shear stress on transverse
sections, the magnitude of which varies across the section.
• In the analysis it is assumed that the shear stress is uniform across
the width and does not affect the distribution of bending stresses.

3
 Shear Stresses in beams

4
 Derivation of Shear formula
• Consider a small portion ABCD of length dx of a beam with
bending moment varying from M to (M + dM) due to udl over its
length dx.
• The distribution of compressive stresses due to bending moment
as shown in Fig.

5
Let
• M = Bending moment at AB
• M+ dM = Bending moment
at CD

Consider elemental strip EF at a distance y from the

neutral axis as shown in Fig.
Let
• σ = Bending stress across AB at a distance y from
neutral axis
• σ + dσ = Bending stress across CD
• I = Moment of inertia
6
 By using Flexure formula

On face AB

On face CD

Force acting across AB

Similarly, force acting across CD

7
 Net unbalanced force on the strip
dF = FCD – FAB

The total unbalanced force F above neutral axis can be found

out by integrating from 0 to d/2

8
 ……..……..(1)

This unbalanced force is balanced by a shearing stress τ acting along

the length 'dx' and width b,

9
 Shear formula

Where
S = Shear force at the section under consideration
A = Area above or below the layer under consideration
y = Distance of centroid of area under consideration
from neutral axis
b = Width at the layer under consideration
I = Moment of inertia of the section

10
 Shear Stress Distribution Over a
Rectangular Section
 Consider a beam of a rectangular
section of width b and depth d as
shown in Fig.
 Consider any layer CD of beam at
a distance y from the neutral axis.

11
Distance of centroid of area from
neutral axis

Moment of inertia

Shear stress at any layer CD

12
 From above equation we can observe that,
 τ increases as y decreases
 Variation of τ is parabolic as the equation of 2nd degree
 When y = d/2, τ = 0
 When y =0, τ is maximum.

Shear stress:-

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Shear stress distribution for various c/s
1. Rectangular Section τ =0

τ2
τ1

τ =0
2. Hollow Rectangular Section
τ =0
τ1 τ2

τ1 τ 2
14
τ =0
Shear stress distribution for various c/s

3. Circular Section
τ =0

τ =0
4. Hollow Circular Section
τ =0
τ1

τ1
15
τ =0
Shear stress distribution for various c/s
5. Triangular Section
τ =0

τ =0
6. C - Section τ =0
τ1 τ2

16 τ1 τ2
τ =0
Shear stress distribution for various c/s
7. I - Section τ =0
τ1 τ2

τ1 τ2
τ =0
8. Unsymmetrical I - Section
τ =0

17
τ =0
Shear stress distribution for various c/s
9. T- Section
τ =0
τ 1 τ2

τ =0
10. H- Section
τ =0

τ2 τ1

τ 2 τ1

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τ =0
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