The cantilever method is an approximate method for calculating

shear force In solid mechanics, shearing forces are unaligned forces acting on one part of a body in a specific direction, and another part of the body in the opposite direction. When the forces are collinear (aligned with each other), they are called t ...

s and moments developed in

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

s and

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

s of a frame or

structure A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

due to lateral loads. The applied lateral loads typically include wind loads and earthquake loads, which must be taken into consideration while designing buildings. The assumptions used in this method are that the points of

contraflexure In solid mechanics, a point along a beam under a lateral load is known as a point of contraflexure if the bending moment about the point equals zero. In a bending moment diagram, it is the point at which the bending moment curve intersects with ...

(or points of inflection of the moment diagram) in both the vertical and horizontal members are located at the midpoint of the member, and that the direct stresses in the columns are proportional to their distances from the centroidal axis of the frame. The frame is analysed in step-wise (iterative) fashion, and the results can then be described by force

diagram A diagram is a symbolic representation of information using visualization techniques. Diagrams have been used since prehistoric times on walls of caves, but became more prevalent during the Enlightenment. Sometimes, the technique uses a three- ...

s drawn up at the end of the process. The method is quite versatile and can be used to analyse frames of any number of

storey A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

s or floors. The position of the centroidal axis (the center of gravity line for the frame) is determined by using the areas of the end columns and interior columns. The cantilever method is considered one of the two primary approximate methods (the other being the portal method) for indeterminate structural analysis of frames for lateral loads. Its use is recommended for frames that are taller than they are wide, and therefore behave similar to a beam cantilevered up from the ground.

References

Civil engineering Structural analysis {{architecture-stub

See also

References