Design with Nonhomogeneous Materials—Part III: Shear Effects in the Bending of Thin-Walled Prismatic Beams

Abstract

A simple theory, in which longitudinal and shear strains are not coupled, has been developed to account for shear effects in the bending of thin-walled nonhomogeneous prismatic beams. This extends the analysis for the pure bending of nonhomogeneous beams, for which the results are known to depend on average “elastic moduli” that are strongly coupled combinations of geometry and material properties. It is shown that shear effects can be analyzed without defining additional average moduli. This theory has been used for determining the shear centers of thin-walled sections.