Static Beam Bending Explorer

Live Script exploring the stress distribution and shape of a loaded beam.

This educational Live Script explores the bending of a uniform solid beam of constant cross section under gravitational and point loads. It illustrates one way to extrude a beam surface (rectangular or cylindrical, other shapes possible) with controlled face placement, create a 3D mesh, find faces and nodes, apply constraints and forces to faces, set material properties, solve for and visualize the equilibrium shape, and compare to Euler-Bernoulli theory. A short accompanying Live script calculates Euler-Bernoulli beam shapes analytically.

The script may interest students and instructors in physics and related fields. Sliders permit interactive control of parameters governing the geometry, mesh density, forces, and constraints. 'Try this' suggestions and more involved 'Challenges" are provided for further exploration, along with references and hyperlinks.