Mechanics Corner

A Journal of Applied Mechanics and Mathematics by DrD, # 32

c Machinery Dynamics Research, LLC, 2015

Braced Cantilever

1 Introduction

Anyone who has actually gotten into machine design is familiar with this di¢ culty. Consider the
situation where a project is well advanced, many plans have been made, and it is all based on the
assumption of the adequacy of one particular part. When you …nally get to the detailed analysis
of that part, the calculations show that it is not adequate. What can you do?
To make the problem much more concrete, consider the cantilever beam shown in Figure 1. It
supports a weight W at the free end, and when someone …nally makes the calculation, the tip
de‡ection, , is unacceptably large. The whole system design has been developed on the assumed
adequacy of that cantilever, and there is no room to put in a beam with a larger section to give
more sti¤ness. What can be done?

E,I,A
δ
W
L
Figure 1: Unstayed Beam With Load

Any of countless machine design texts, mechanics of materials texts, etc., give the formula for the
end de‡ection,

W L3
= (1)
3EI
where
E = Young’s modulus for the beam material
I = area moment of inertia for the beam cross section
L = length of the beam
W = tip load value

1
While we can argue that someone should have checked this earlier, …nger-pointing does not …x the
problem.

2 Add a Tie-Rod Backstay

Consider the addition of a tie-rod backstay as shown in Figure 2. The rod is relatively slender, and
is pin jointed at both ends; it carries tension only.

Tie-Rod

Er ,Ar ,Lr
H
E,I,A
xt
yt
W
L
Figure 2: Cantilever Beam With Cable Backstay

As before, E; I; A with no subscripts represent the Young’s modulus, area moment of inertia, and
cross sectional area of the cantilever beam. The new quantities involved are
Er = e¤ective Young’s modulus for the tie-rod;
Ar = e¤ective cross sectional area for the tie-rod;
Lr = unstressed length of the tie-rod between the connection points;
xt = assumed axial displacement of the right end;
yt = assumed downward displacement of the right end.
The di¢ culty at hand is that now the vertical load W is shared between the tie-rod tension (T )
and shear and bending in the beam.

2.1 Tie-Rod Tension

First, let us consider the matter of stretch in the rod, assuming the ends have the assumed dis-
placements xt and yt as indicated in Figure 2. The length of the stretched rod is Lc ,

2
 (Lr )2 = (L + xt )2 + (H + yt )2
= +L2 + H 2 + 2Hyt + 2Lxt + x2t + yt2
= L2r + 2Hyt + 2Lxt + x2t + yt2 (2)

The strain in the tie-rod is then

Lr Lr
"r =
Lr
Lr Lr 2Lr
=
2Lr Lr
(Lr Lr ) (Lr + Lr )
2L2r
2
Lr L2r
=
2L2r
2Hyt + 2Lxt + x2t + yt2
=
2L2r
xt L yt H
+
Lr Lr Lr Lr
xt yt
= cos + sin (3)
Lr Lr

where = angle between tie-rod and the beam undeformed centerline (note that 2Lr Lr + Lr ).
This expression is correct to the …rst order in the small quantities xt =L and yt =L. The tie-rod
tension is then

xt yt
T = Ar E r " r = Ar E r cos + sin (4)
Lr Lr

2.2 Beam Loads

Assume that the right end of the beam is subject to a downward vertical load Fy and a horizontal
load Fx to the right on the beam. The we know that the tip loads and displacements of the beam
will be such that

xt
Fx = AE (5)
L
3EI
Fy = yt (6)
L3

2.3 Equilibrium Condition

The condition is for equilibrium at the junction point of the beam, the tie-rod, and the applied
load W . The condition for equilibrium is

3
 +!
X
FHoriz = Fx T cos =0 (7)
+"
X
FV ert = Fy + T sin W =0 (8)

At this point, we must substitute for the forces in terms of the disagreements, to obtain

xt xt yt
AE Ar E r cos + sin cos = 0
L Lr Lr
EI xt yt
3 3 yt + Ar Er cos + sin sin = W
L Lr Lr

or
" #
AE Ar Er Ac Ec
L Lr cos Lc sin xt 0
Ar Er = (9)
Lr cos 3EI
L3
+ ALr E
r
r
sin yt W

At this point, it is a matter of solving numerically for the displacements, xt and yt and then
substitute back to obtain the forces.

2.4 Numerical Calculation

To make the above more speci…c, suppose that the following numerical values apply.
The applied load (for all cases) is
W = 31400 N
For the beam alone —
L = 2:25 m
AE = 5:101538 109 N
EI = 973607 N/m2
With these values, eq(1) gives a tip de‡ection of
= 0:122454 m or 122 mm.
For the tie-rod alone —
Ar Er = 0:831317 108 N
Lr = 2:304886 m
With the load supported by the combination of the cantilever beam and the tie-rod, the results are
xt = 0:0005308 m
yt = 0:0181471 m
T = 123295:97 N

4
Fx = 120359:929 N
Fy = 4653:349 N
These numerical values show that the addition of the tie-rod brace substantially reduces the tip
vertical de‡ection (from 122:4 mm to 18:1 mm). This is accomplished at the price of inducing
moderately heavy loads on the supporting wall, 123296 N at the tie-rod and 120360 N at the
supported end of the beam.

3 Pin Connected Alternative Frame

The numbers developed in the preceding numerical calculations show that, with the tie-rod backstay
in place, there is relatively little bending in the beam, so the moment carrying capacity of the
beam is no longer of major importance (it was all important when there was no brace at all!). This
suggests exploring the alternative of using a pin-connected frame in place of the beam and tie-rod
arrangement. Such a pin-connected frame is shown in Figure 3.

Er ,Ar ,Lr
H
E,I,A
xt
yt
W
L
Figure 3: Pin-Connected Frame

Note particularly that there are pin connections at the left end of the beam, the left end of the
brace (now called a rod), and a pin connection where the two join at the right and support the load
W . The beam properties remain E; I; and A; but the end conditions are now completely altered.
For the brace, there was no moment at either end previously, and that condition applies here as
well. Each member is now only a two-force member, meaning then that the forces act along the
member axes.

3.1 Brace Tension Force

1=2
The free length of the brace is Lr = L2 + H 2 , and the length under load is Lr = Ar Er "r and
all of the analysis above relating the tension to the displacements xt and yt applies again in this
case:

5
 xt yt
T = Ar E r cos + sin (10)
Lr Lr

3.2 Beam Axial Force

As before, we assume that the beam is subject to an axis tensile load Fx causing the tip displacement
xt :

xt
Fx = AE (11)
L

3.3 Equilibrium

The equilibrium of the pin connecting the two members and the load is described by

+!
X
FHoriz = Fx T cos =0 (12)
+CCW
X
MOrigin = LW + LT sin =0 (13)

With the solutions

W
T = (14)
sin
Fx = W cot (15)

which give

LW cot
xt = (16)
AE
Lr L
yt = W + (17)
Ar Er sin2 AE

xt yt
T = Ar E r cos + sin
Lr Lr
Lr L
yt = W 2 + (18)
Ar Er sin AE

3.4 More Numbers

For the entirely pin-connected frame, the member values will be taken the same as previously. All
that is di¤erent is that there is now to be no moment in the beam at the built-in end.

6
The previous results and those for this case are summarized in the following table for comparison.

Beam Alone Beam With Pin-Connected

Tie-Rod Frame

xt = ~ 0:5308 0:6232 (mm)

yt = 122:45 18:147 21:304 (mm)
T = ~ 123296 144747 (N)
Fx = 0 120360 141300 (N)
Fy = 31400 4653:3 0:0 (N)

4 Conclusion

Looking back at this problem from a sort of …rst-last-middle perspective, it is evident that:

1. The built–in beam carries the load in a mix of shear and bending, but the resulting tip
de‡ection is quite large;

2. The pin-jointed frame carries the load entirely as member tensions (there are no shear or
bending moment in any member) with rather small tip displacement but at the expense of
fairly large axial loads which go into the supports;

3. Imposing a greater degree of internal constraint by building in the end of the beam while
maintaining the tie-rod backstay reduces the axial loads somewhat, but at the expense of
creating an end moment on the support.

There is no answer to the question "Which is the best solution?" until we know more about what
the supporting wall can best withstand. The one thing that was clear from the beginning is that
the built-in beam alone was not adequate from the perspective of tip de‡ection. It is also evident
that we do have some options.

DrD is a retired Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the USA. He can be reached for comments,
questions, or requests at through the ME Forum. Be sure to check back soon at www.http://mechanical-
engineering.in/forum/blog/206-mechanics-corner/ for more articles.