PREMIUM COURSES
Mastering Shear Force and Bending Moment Diagrams
Your complete roadmap to mastering these essential structural analysis skills.
After completing this course…
- You will be fully competent in drawing shear force and bending moment diagrams for statically determinate beams and frames.
- You will have a robust system of analysis that allows you to confidently tackle the analysis of any statically determinate structure.
- You will understand the relationship between external loading and the shear forces and bending moments they induce.
Shear Forces & Bending Moments: Analysis Bootcamp
Sharpen your civil engineering analysis skills with questions designed to test your understanding.
After completing this course…
- You will have a reliable procedure for correctly determining shear force and bending moment diagrams for statically determinate structures.
- You will be comfortable analysing both 1-dimensional beam and 2-dimensional frame structures.
- You will be able to utilise pre-existing pin-joints in structures to facilitate your analysis.
Indeterminate Structures & The Moment Distribution Method
Unlock indeterminate structures using the moment distribution structural analysis method.
After completing this course…
- You will have a deep understanding of how structures respond to loading.
- You will clearly understand the methods used to analyse statically indeterminate beams and frames.
- You will be able to analyse both non-sway and sway frames – essential when designing real world structures.
Moment Distribution Method: Analysis Bootcamp
Step up your structural analysis skills by working your way through these indeterminate structures.
After completing this course…
- You will have an even deeper understanding of how structures respond to loading.
- You will be comfortable determining shear force, bending moment and deflected shape diagrams.
- You will be able to analyse both non-sway and sway frames – essential when designing real world structures.
TUTORIALS
Building a Beam Deflection Calculator in Python
In this project, we’ll build a beam deflection calculator that can generate beam deflections by directly integrating the bending moment diagram. The technique we’ll use for calculating deflection in this project is not limited to statically determinate structures, although you will need a complete bending moment diagram to integrate. This project builds on our previous Shear Force and Bending Moment Calculator project. So at the end of this project, the final result will be a complete beam analysis code that calculates beam reactions, shear forces, bending moments and deflections.
Macauley’s Method for Fast Beam Deflections
In this tutorial we’re going to revisit the topic of deflection calculation and introduce Macauley’s Method. We’ll again rely on integrating the differential equation of the deflection curve, except this time we’ll speed the whole process up considerably by using Macauley’s method. This technique is also sometimes known as the Singularity Function method. We’ll work our way through some examples that will leave you well placed to apply Macauley’s Method on your own. We’ll also write a couple of helper Python scripts along the way to make our lives a little easier.
Building a Shear Force and Bending Moment Diagram Calculator in Python
In this project we’re going to build a Shear Force and Bending Moment Diagram calculator using Python in the Jupyter Notebook development environment. Generating the shear force and bending moment diagram for a simple beam with anything other than basic loading can be a tedious and time-consuming process. Once you finish this project, you’ll have a calculator that can produce shear force and bending moment diagrams at the push of a button.
Calculating Beam Deflection from First Principles
In this tutorial we’re going to explore beam deflection and see how we can calculate the deflection of any beam from first principles using the differential equation of the deflection curve. We’ll work our way through a numerical example before discussing how we can use superposition along with tabulated formulae to speed up the process of calculating beam deflection.
Shear and Moment Diagrams – An Ultimate Guide
Shear force and bending moment diagrams tell us about the underlying state of stress in the structure. Determining shear and moment diagrams is an essential skill for any engineer. Unfortunately it’s probably the one structural analysis skill most students struggle with most. So in this post we’ll give you a thorough introduction to shear forces, bending moments and how to draw shear and moment diagrams. By the end of this post you’ll know a lot more about shear forces and moment moments then when you started.
Yielding, Plastic Deformation and Moment Redistribution in Beams (2/2)
In this tutorial, we’re going to work out exactly how to determine the plastic moment capacity of a cross-section. We’ll also explore the concept of moment redistribution with an illustrative example. By the end of this post you’ll be able to calculate the plastic moment capacity of any cross-section and understand in detail how moment redistribution occurs in a structure and ultimately how collapse can occur as a result of hinge formation.
The Stress-Strain Curve & Plastic Hinges in Beams (1/2)
So why is plastic behaviour so important to understand? It’s probably fair to say that most of our engineering analysis assumes linearly elastic behaviour. But in reality, if we limit our designs to purely elastic behaviour, we’re leaving a lot of structural capacity untapped. Structures very often have more load carrying capacity than a linearly elastic analysis suggests. In this post we’ll explore this reserve capacity.