Using MATLAB as a teaching and learning tool for beam bending problems in mechanics

Abstract

This paper presents a MATLAB solution for the shear force, bending movement, and deflection as continuous functions of the distance measured from the left and support for a simply supported beam carrying concentrated and uniformly distributed loads. The solution has been cast in such a way that it can be easily modified for the beam to carry any number of these loads. The solution provides an easy way of determining the maximun values of the functions and their locations.Using numerical values for a particular loading, the solution and graphs for the above functions are presented as obtained from an actual MATLAB script, which has been included at the end of the paper in appendix. The reader who has access to MATLAB is encouraged to use the script to verify the results presented. Also mechanics lectures who are involved in engineering undergraduate education will find the script very useful in terms of demostrating the effect of various concentrated and uniform loads on simply supported beans.