Universidad Autónoma de Baja California

(UABC)

Teacher: PhD Juan de Dios Ocampo

Subject: Mecánica de Materiales (Mechanics of Materials)

Beams Classification

Student: Sergio Salazar Corona

University Enrollment: 1148748

Group: 390

Friday 12nd October, 2018

 1. DEFINITION
 A beam is a structural member used for bearing loads. It is typically used for
resisting vertical loads, shear forces and bending moments.
In other words, beams are any of various relatively long pieces of metal,
wood, stone, etc., manufactured or shaped especially for use as rigid
members or parts of structures or machines.

2. TYPES OF BEAMS
Beams can be classified into many types based on three main criteria. They
are as follows:

a. Based on geometry:

1. Straight beam – Beam with straight profile

2. Curved beam – Beam with curved profile
3. Tapered beam – Beam with tapered cross section
4. Based on the shape of cross section:
 I-beam – Beam with ‘I’ cross section
 T-beam – Beam with ‘T’ cross section
 C-beam – Beam with ‘C’ cross section

b. Based on equilibrium conditions:

1. Statically determinate beam – For a statically determinate beam,

equilibrium conditions alone can be used to solve reactions.
2. Statically indeterminate beam – For a statically indeterminate beam,
equilibrium conditions are not enough to solve reactions. Additional
deflections are needed to solve reactions.

c. Type of support:

 Simply supported beam

 Cantilever beam
 Overhanging beam
 Continuous beam
 Fixed beam

d. Type of Load:

A beam is usually horizontal member and load which will be acting over the beam
will be usually vertical loads. There are following types of loads as mentioned here
and we will discuss each type of load in detail.
 Point load or concentrated load
 Uniformly distributed load
 Uniformly varying load
Point load or concentrated load
Point load or concentrated load, as name suggest, acts at a point on the beam. If
we will see practically, point load or concentrated load also distributed over a small
area but we can consider such type of loading as point loading and hence such
type of load could be considered as point load or concentrated load.

Following figure displayed here indicates the beam AB of length L which will be
loaded with point load W at the midpoint of the beam. Load W will be considered
here as the point load.

Uniformly distributed load

Uniformly distributed load is the load which will be distributed over the length of the
beam in such a way that rate of loading will be uniform throughout the distribution
length of the beam.

Uniformly distributed load is also expressed as U.D.L and with value as w N/m.
During determination of the total load, total uniformly distributed load will be
converted in to point load by multiplying the rate of loading i.e. w (N/m) with the
span of load distribution i.e. L and will be acting over the midpoint of the length of
the uniformly load distribution.

Let us consider the following figure, a beam AB of length L is loaded with uniformly
distributed load and rate of loading is w (N/m).

Total uniformly distributed load, P = w*L

Uniformly varying load
Uniformly varying load is the load which will be distributed over the length of the
beam in such a way that rate of loading will not be uniform but also vary from point
to point throughout the distribution length of the beam.

Uniformly varying load is also termed as triangular load. Let us see the following
figure, a beam AB of length L is loaded
with uniformly varying load.

We can see from figure that load is zero

at one end and increases uniformly to
the other end. During determination of
the total load, we will determine the area of the triangle and the result i.e. area of
the triangle will be total load and this total load will be assumed to act at the C.G of
the triangle.

e. Type of material:
The material properties of a beam give the beam its ability to withstand
loads, to flex or compress without breaking, and to withstand heat, tension,
shear, and other forces. Important mechanical properties of materials can
be found tabulated in various engineering handbooks and textbooks. For
now, the material property that we will be most interested in is the so-called
modulus of elasticity (also called Young's modulus). The modulus of
elasticity for a material indicates by how much the material will yield when
subjected to a given force per unit area. In technical language, the amount
the material yields (elongation per unit length) is called strain, and the force
per unit area is called stress.
Many materials change their length approximately linearly in response to an
applied force. This response, known as Hooke's Law, is valid when the
applied force per unit area is not too great. The ratio of stress to strain is
defined to be the modulus of elasticity.
The units of the modulus of elasticity (E) are giga-Pascals (10^9 kg/m^2)
while the units of density are kg/m^3. In all cases, when a range of values
are indicated, we used the greatest values in the software that simulates the
bending of beams.
3. APPLICATION OF BEAM IN AIRCRAFT
STRUCTURES
The early design of aircraft such as the Wright Flyer in Figure 1 there can really
be no misunderstanding of the construction style. The entire aircraft, including
most notably the wings, forward and rear structures were all constructed from
rectangular frames that were prevented from shearing (forming a parallelogram)
or collapsing by diagonally stretched wire. There were two major innovative
thoughts behind this design philosophy. Firstly, the idea that two parallel wings
would facilitate a lighter yet stronger structure than a single wing, and secondly,
that these two wings could be supported with two light wires rather than with a
single, thicker wooden member. The structural advantage of the biplane
construction is that the two wings, vertical struts and wires form a deep light
beam, which is more resistant to bending and twisting than a single wing. Much
like a composite sandwich beam it can be treated as two stiff outer skins for high
bending rigidity connected by a lightweight “core” to provide resistance to shear
and torsion.

4. CONCLUSIONS
Beams are such an important element for any structure even if it is related with aircraft
models. Actually in some academic subjects like dynamic or Mechanics of Materials, beams
are a fundamental factor because they are present in almost all structures even in real and
professional life.

With this investigation that I did, I realized that beams are in our daily life and there are
enough kind of them, according with the use that we want to give to them.
Beams have a central or distributed concentration depends of the one function that they
realized.

Most of the time we visualize beam as a horizontal element but any part of a structure which
is loaded laterally or perpendicular to its axis can be considered as beam and designed
accordingly. For example Columns are generally designed as compression member but if there
are possibility of lateral load application in future, it should also be designed as beam. The
beam structure is very useful in taking bending loads.

The whole idea of using beam section is to make structure stiff by increasing moment of
inertia by disturbing area away from the neutral axis thus increasing moment of resistance.

5. REFERENCES
 http://mechteacher.com/beam/#ixzz5Tf0Wr4j8

 https://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcourse-contents/IIT-
ROORKEE/strength%20of%20materials/lects%20&%20picts/image/lect21/l
ecture21.htm

 http://www.hkdivedi.com/2017/03/different-types-of-load-acting-on-
beam.html

 http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/education/calc-init/static-beam/material.html

 J.M. Gere and S.P. Timoshenko, Mechanics of Materials , 3rd Ed, PWS-
Kent, Boston, 1990.

 https://engineering.purdue.edu/AAECourses/aae352/2013/AAE%20352%20
Course%20Text%20Weisshaar%202011.pdf