Shear Force & Bending Moment

Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan

Mechanics of Materials, Notes Prepared By:

03/14/2021 1
Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
 What are Beams
• The term beam refers to a slender bar that carries
transverse loading; that is applied force are
perpendicular to the bar.
• In a beam, the internal force system consist of a
shear force and a bending moment acting on the
cross section of the bar.
• The shear force and the bending moment usually
vary continuously along the length of the beam.

Mechanics of Materials, Notes Prepared By:

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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
• The internal forces give rise to two kinds of
stresses on a transverse section of a beam:
• (1) Normal stress that is caused by bending
moment and
• (2) Shear stress due to the shear force.

Mechanics of Materials, Notes Prepared By:

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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
 Types of Beams
• Simply supported beam (simple beam)
• A simply supported beam, shown in Fig (a).
• The pin support prevents displacement of the
end of the beams, but not its rotation.
• The term roller support refers to a pin
connection that is free to move parallel to the
axis of the beam; this type of support
suppresses only the transverse displacement.
Mechanics of Materials, Notes Prepared By:
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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
 Mechanics of Materials, Notes Prepared By:
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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
 Cantilever Beam
• A cantilever beam is built into a rigid support
at one end, with the other end being free, as
shown in Fig.(b).
• The built-in support prevents displacements as
well as rotations of the end of the beam.

Mechanics of Materials, Notes Prepared By:

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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
 Overhanging Beam
• An overhanging beam, illustrated in Fig.(c), is
supported by a pin and a roller support, with
one or both ends of the beam extending
beyond the supports.

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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
• The three types of beams are statically
determinate because the support reactions can
be found from the equilibrium equations.

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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
 Load Types on Beams
• Concentrated Load
• Concentrated load, such as P in Fig. (a).
• Uniformly Distributed Load
• In contrast a distributed load is applied over a
finite area as shown in Fig. (b)
• If the distributed load acts on a very narrow
area, the load may be approximated by a line
load.
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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
 Shear Forces and Bending Moments
• Consider a cantilever beam with a concentrated
load P applied at the beam, at the cross section MN,
the shear force and bending moment are found.
• The beam is held in equilibrium by R1 and R2
• Neglect the weight of the beam and only
considered the effect of load P.
• The free body diagram of the left segment shows
that the externally applied load is R1

Mechanics of Materials, Notes Prepared By:

03/14/2021 10
Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
 P

n
L R2
R1
P
Vr
Mr

R1 Vr L-x
Mechanics of Materials, Notes Prepared By:
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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan R2 11
• To satisfy ΣFy = 0 the vertical unbalance
caused by R1requires the fibers in section m-n
to create a resisting fore.
• For loading shown , vr is numerically equals to
the R1.
• But if additional force is applied between
section m-n then the net vertical unbalance
force is equal to their vertical components.
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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
• We defined this vertical unbalance as a shearing
force in the beam.
• It may be denoted by “V” and may be determined
from summation of the vertical components of
the external loads acting on either side of the
section.
• This definition of shear force may be expressed
as:
V= (ΣFy )L
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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
• The subscript L emphasizing that the vertical
summation includes only the external loads
acting on the beam to the left of the section
being considered.
• The resisting shearing Vr set up by the fibers in
any section is always equal but opposite to the
shearing force “V”.
• In calculating “V” upward acting forces or
loads are taken as positive.
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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
• Positive shearing force tends to move the left
segment upward with respect to the right and
vice versa

Positive Shear Negative Shear

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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
• For complete equilibrium of the free-body
diagram the summation of moments must also
be balance.
• In this discussion R1 and Vr are equal, there by
producing a couple M that is equal to (R1(x))
and is called bending moment, because it tends
to bend the beam.

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 Bending Moment
• It is defined as the summation of moments
about the centroidal axis of any selected
section of all loads acting either to the left or
right side of the section, and expressed as:
M= (ΣM )L= (ΣM )R
• The subscript L emphasizing that the bending
moment is computed in terms of the loads
acting to the left of the section.

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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan
 Sign Convention
• The shear force tends to rotate the material
clockwise is defined as positive
• The bending moment tends to compress the
upper part of the beam and elongate the lower
part is defined as positive

Mechanics of Materials, Notes Prepared By:

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Engr. Abdul Rahim Khan