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Normal Stress, Bending Stress, & Shear Stress

December 4th, 2007

Stresses in Beams
In a separate article entitled “Structural Analysis of a Beam” there was a brief discussion of stresses and their function in structural analysis.  In this article there will be a more in dept discussion of normal, bending, and shear stress.

Normal Stress
A normal stress is a stress that occurs when a member is loaded by an axial force.  The value of the normal force for any prismatic section is simply the force divided by the cross sectional area.

Normal Stress

A normal stress will occur when a member is placed in tension or compression.  Examples of members experiencing pure normal forces would include columns, collar ties, etc.

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Structural Analysis of a Beam

November 20th, 2007

The process used for determining the adequacy of a wood, steel, or even a concrete beam is essentially the same. Once a beam has been selected the method is as follows:

  • Determine the loads
  • Calculate the stresses
  • Check the allowable stresses against the actual stresses.

Determine the Loads
The first step in the structural analysis of a beam is determining the amount of load, or weight the beam is going to support.  There are two major categories of loads:

This is a preview of Structural Analysis of a Beam. Read the full post (523 words, 2 images, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)