Dr.

Nelson Muthu, Asstistant Professor

FR-5, ME Extn, Department of Mechanical Engineering
IIT Guwahati
SHEAR STRESS IN BEAMS
In addition to the pure bending case, beams are often subjected to transverse loads which
generate both bending moments M(x) and shear forces V(x) along the beam. The bending
moments cause bending normal stresses to arise through the depth of the beam, and the
shear forces cause transverse shear-stress distribution through the beam cross section

Assumption: In pure bending, we considered that cross section will remain plane
and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the beam. This is not true when a
beam is subjected to both bending moment and shear. However, we can assume
cross-sectional warping described above is small enough so that it can be
neglected. This is true for most cases of a slender beam.
 Sum of forces along x-axis is zero
The stresses due to the bending moments
only form a couple
STRAIN ENERGY
 Infinitesimal strain energy,

1 


 
 

2 2 






2 


 

  
 
 

 
Infinitesimal strain energy,

1 1 


 
  

2 2 






2

 The shear stress varies across the height in a parabolic manner in
the case of a rectangular cross-section. Also, the shear stress
distribution varies with the shape of the cross section. However, to
simplify the computation shear stress is assumed to be uniform
(which is strictly not correct) across the cross section. Consider a
segment of length ds subjected to shear stress . The shear stress
across the cross section may be taken as



k is the form factor which is dependent on the shape of the cross
section.

The deformation
 can be written as



 
 

 
   !" !"#$  $#%&

1 1  1  


 
  
  



2 2  2  2 

Infinitesimal strain energy,

1 1 '


 '
(  '

2 2 )

'



2)