International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics 44 (2009) 253 -- 256

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International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics

journal homepage: w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / n l m

Semi-exact solutions for large deflections of cantilever beams

of non-linear elastic behaviour
E. Solano-Carrillo
Departamento de Física, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: The problem of large deflections of cantilever beams made of materials obeying a Ludwick type
Received 4 November 2008 stress–strain law under the combined action of one vertical concentrated force at the free end and a
Received in revised form 5 November 2008 uniformly distributed load were investigated in the so-called bending moment formulation. A corrected
Accepted 6 November 2008
bending moment is introduced and it is shown that the resulting governing differential equation for
PACS:
the slopes can be solved semi-analytically for some few selected cases of interest in which materials
46.70.De like acetal plastic and glass fibre enter. A discovered coupling between the material and geometrical
46.25.Cc non-linearities involved in the problem divides the general solution into two regions separated by one in
which there is no coupling at all and where it is expected to exist an elastic critical behaviour.
Keywords: © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Cantilever beams
Ludwick type materials
Large deflections
Geometrical non-linearity
Material non-linearity
Analytical solutions

1. Introduction complexity is added to the problem when we consider materials of

The deflections of a cantilever beam under a certain applied load
are a well-known problem in the theory of elasticity [1] and strength
of materials [2]. The whole picture for this problem can be realized
if we take into account the mixing of three relevant aspects [3]:
geometrical behaviour (displacements, large and small deflections),
material behaviour (elasticity, plasticity), and external forces ap-
plied (independent from displacements). The most common scheme
is a cantilever beam of linear elastic material subjected to a ver-
tical concentrated load at the free end. In this case, the solution
for large deflections was obtained by Bisshopp and Drucker [4] in
terms of elliptical integrals. A very important suggestion was made
by Solano-Carrillo [5] which allows us to obtain a simple solution
to the problem in terms of a power series. The problem grows in
complexity when cantilever beams of variable cross-section are con-
sidered [6] and when different loading conditions are applied [7–9].
In these cases the solution is mainly numerical since, most of the
times, analytical methods stagnate when non-linearities (as the ge-
ometrical ones coming from large deflections) arise. Another kind of
E-mail address: essolanoc@gmail.com.
non-linear elastic behaviour. This material non-linearity may be of
any sort and we are going to deal with the especial case known as
the Ludwick type, which applies primarily to metals which work
harden. Lewis and Monasa [10] numerically solved the problem of
large deflections of cantilever beams made of materials of the Lud-
wick type subjected to one vertical concentrated force at the free
end; and obtained a closed-form solution when an end moment is
applied instead [11]. Adding a uniformly distributed load, Lee was
able to obtain numerically the slopes and deflections at the free
end [12].
Nowhere in the literature were found exact solutions for the
large deflection of a cantilever beam made of Ludwick type mate-
rial under a combined loading consisting of a vertical concentrated
load at the free end and a vertical load distributed uniformly along
the beam, the problem stated by Lee. In this paper we shall inves-
tigate this problem in the bending moment formulation. The new
feature to be implemented is the correction made by Solano-Carrillo
[5] to the calculation of the bending moment in the Euler–Bernoulli
relationship. We shall see that there is a coupling between the
material and geometrical non-linearities which allows us to deter-
mine the semi-exact solutions for the slopes in some few selected
cases.

0020-7462/$ - see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijnonlinmec.2008.11.007
254 E. Solano-Carrillo / International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics 44 (2009) 253 -- 256

2. Theoretical analysis L

For materials that exhibit a Ludwick type non-linear behaviour,

the relation between stress and strain is represented by the expres- x
x
sion [15]
X
 = E1/n (1)
w
y
where  and  are the stress and the strain, respectively, and n and 
E are constants associated with the elastic properties of the material.
From this equation, the Euler–Bernoulli relationship between the
elastic bending moment Me and the curvature  can be derived [13]
giving 
F⊥

Me = EIn  1/n
(2) F
Y

where In is the “moment of order (n+1)/n” of the cross-section of the Fig. 1. A cantilever beam with a combined load and definition of parameters.
beam (assumed constant) with respect to a horizontal axis passing
through its centre of gravity. In the case that we consider here the
x
cross-section has a rectangular geometry with depth h and width b,
and we have

 (n+1)/n  
1 n (2n+1)/n
In = bh
2 2n + 1
Me (x)

Let us assume that the beam is thin enough1 so that we can ap- M (x)
proximate the shape it takes on with a curve y(x) (usually called
elastica) in the plane it deforms. In this case the curvature is defined Neutral
surface 
by [14]

d2 y/dx2
= (3)
[1 + (dy/dx)2 ]3/2

Fig. 2. Torques acting on a small portion of the bent beam.

In Fig. 1 we show the deflection of a cantilever beam subjected to
a vertical concentrated force F at the free end and a vertical load w
(force per unit length) distributed uniformly along the length L. As a Then, the correction to the bending moment [5] extended to this
result, the free end undergoes an x–y displacement represented by case reads
x and y , respectively. The angle  measures the rotation of a cross-  a
section of the beam located at the position x and F⊥ is the projection M(x) = F⊥ (a − x) + w⊥ (x − x) dx
x
of F along the direction given by this angle.  
w
Now, in order to determine the elastica we have to give a work- = F(a − x) + (a − x)2 cos 
2
ing definition of the elastic bending moment. For this, we see that if
w
we take a portion (Fig. 2) of the bent beam there are parts which are F(a − x) + (a − x)2
=  2 (5)
compressed and other which are stretched, and by physical continu-  2
ity, a neutral surface which undergoes neither extension nor com- dy
1+
pression. dx
For a cross-section in this portion, the forces of stretching and
Substituting Eqs. (3)–(5) into (2), and making the change to the non-
compression constitute a torque about a transverse axis lying in
dimensional variables u = x/L and v = y/L, we obtain the differential
this neutral surface, which, when added up for the whole section,
equation for the slopes defined by g = dv/du:
gives rise to the elastic bending moment in Eq. (2). Accordingly, the
applied bending moment M which originates at this section from dg
= P3−2 (u) du (6)
the combined action of the force at the free end and the uniformly (1 + g2 )
distributed load is the one responsible for the curvature and always
resists the elastic bending moment, so that at equilibrium where Pn (u) are the functions
 n
Pn (u) = Cn ( − u) + ( − u)2
M(x) − Me (x) = 0 (4) 2
with the identification of the non-dimensional constants
which is valid for all x in the interval [0, a], where the definition  
a = L − x has been made. F n n+1 a wL
Cn = L , = , =
EIn L F

The parameter  = (3 − n)/2 is the coupling between the geometrical

1
By this we mean that the length of the beam is much greater than the linear non-linearity (3/2 from the curvature) and the material non-linearity
dimensions of its cross-section. (n/2 from the Ludwick law).
 E. Solano-Carrillo / International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics 44 (2009) 253 -- 256 255

3. Results for some selected cases 3.3. Case  = 1

In this section we shall investigate semi-exact solutions for (6) This case corresponds to the linear elastic materials. Here, the
in some selected cases. Table 1 shows the values of the coupling integration of (6) gives
constant for different materials of the Ludwick type (taken from   
[2,15]). 1
g = tan C1 N2 + N3 (11)
We choose the cases  = 0, 0.5, 1 for which the exact solution for 2 6
the slopes is straightforward.
from which one can calculate the angle  if we remember the defi-
nition g = tan . The result is the very simple expression
3.1. Case  = 0
 
1
When there is no coupling between the material and geometrical
 = C1 N2 + N3
2 6
non-linearities, as is the case for materials like acetal plastic, Eq. (6)
becomes These results agree with those obtained in Ref. [5] when we make
 3 = 0. The solution for the vertical tip deflection is more difficult to

dg = C3 ( − u) + ( − u)2 du investigate analytically since the integration of (11) is not straight-
2
forward, as we could expect again.
Integration of this equation gives

 4. Discussion
1 3 3 2 3
g = C3 N4 + N5 + N6 + N7 (7)
4 10 24 56 We have seen that the problem considered here involves both
material and geometrical non-linearities, but even so, we have shown
l l
where the notation Nl = Nl (u, ) =  − ( − u) has been used for that at least one closed-form solution (Eq. (8)) to this problem can be
abbreviation and the boundary condition g(0) = 0 has been applied obtained. We may identify this solution as semi-analytical because
at the fixed end of the cantilever beam. the result is given in terms of a quantity  that must be calculated
Integrating Eq. (7) and using the boundary condition v(0) = 0 we numerically or determined experimentally. The question of a general
obtain the elastica. The result is a bit cubersome to be displayed. solution of Eq. (6) is left open. It is suggestive, as it is shown in Table 1,
Instead, we show the expression for the non-dimensional tip deflec- that this general solution must be divided into three regions  < 0,
tion ratio:  = 0 and  > 0 being that of  = 0 the one we expect to be of elastic
  critical behaviour. The advantage in looking for that solution is that
y 1 5 1 6 3 1
= C3  +  + 2 7 + 3 8 (8) the governing equation is a separated differential equation. There-
L 5 4 28 64
fore, the problem focus on the integration of the left-hand side2 fol-
The solution for x /L = 1 −  can be determined, in general, once we lowed by an inversion of the result in order to determine the slopes.
know a closed-form solution for g as that given by (7), combined This is a difficult task to be performed in this early work. Instead we
with the non-dimensional relation expressing the inextensibility of exhort the specialists to use the corrected bending moment intro-
the beam duced in this paper in future numerical investigations in the subject.
 
1 + g2 du = 1 (9) 5. Conclusions
0

Several numerical approaches for doing this are proposed but we The large deflections of a cantilever beam made of Ludwick type
refer the reader to the simple one explained in Ref. [16] which uses material under the combined action of a vertical concentrated force
a built-in function of the Mathematica software. at the free end and a uniformly distributed load were investigated,
in the bending moment formulation, in those cases in which a
3.2. Case  = 0.5 semi-exact solution for the slopes were straightforward. These so-
lutions were possible thanks to a discovered coupling between the
We can also obtain a semi-exact solution for the slopes in the material and geometrical non-linearities involved in the problem.
case of materials like glass fibre. In this case the integration of This coupling makes the general solution of the governing equation
Eq. (6) gives to be divided into three regions in which the one with  = 0 is


 expected to have an elastic critical behaviour.
1 2
g = sinh C2 N3 + N4 + N5 (10)
3 4 20 References
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