2.

3 Moment–Curvature Relationship in an

Elastic–Plastic Range

A cross section under increasing bendingmoment undergoes three stages

of transformation in its plastification process. As shown in Figure 2.4,

they are elastic (AB), elastic–plastic (BD), and fully plastic (DE).

2.3.1 Elastic Behavior

Figure 2.6 shows a small length of a beam under bending with constant

curvature. The shape of the original element ABCD is transformed

FIGURE 2.6. Part of a beam under bending.

into A’B’C’D’ as a consequence of bending so that the extreme edges

A’B’ and C’D’ are both subtending a common center of circles at O. It

can be seen that A’B’ contracts from AB and therefore the element fibers
along A’B’ are under compression with compressive stress fc. Similarly,

the element fibers along C’D’ are under tension with tensile stress ft.

As a result, an axis exists along aa where the stress is zero. This is called

the neutral axis at a distance r from the center of the circles at O.

For consistency, the sign convention is that a positive bending

moment causing sagging in the element is associated with a negative

radius of curvature r. The distance y from the neutral axis is measured

positive below the neutral axis.

If the unstrained length along the neutral axis a-a is x and the

length b-b at a distance y from the neutral axis is x0, the axial strain

can be expressed as

2.1

The curvature k of a cross section is defined as

2.2

Hence, from Equations (2.1) and (2.2), the curvature can be defined as

the slope of the strain diagram shown in Figure 2.7.

For a bending stress, f, associated with a small area @A in the cross

section, the total compression Fc above the neutral axis is given as

Likewise, the total tension Ft below the neutral axis can be

derived as

Note that the integrations in Equations (2.3) and (2.4) are about

the neutral axis. For a cross section under pure bending, the sum of

the compression and tension must vanish in order to maintain equilibrium.

Hence,

If the location of any horizontal fiber ismeasured as y0 froma convenient

axis, such as the top or bottom edge, and the location of the neutral

axis is y from the same axis, Equation (2.5) can then be written as
where A is the total area of the cross section. Equation (2.6) is often used

to locate the neutral axis numerically for simple asymmetric sections.

By taking the moment about the neutral axis, the bending

moment of the whole section can be found to be

2.7
By defining the second moment of area (or moment of inertia)

, the stress f at any point in the cross section can be

2.8

Equation (2.8) is based on the simple bending theory in which the

plane section remains plane under applied forces and has been used in

elastic design method for decades. It is valid when the whole section

remains elastic and the modulus of elasticity E remains constant.

2.3.2 Elastic–Plastic Behavior

To illustrate the calculation of the moment–curvature relationship

beyond the elastic limit, a symmetric, rectangular section of dimensions

start to yield with f ¼ fy, the corresponding yield moment My, shown

in Figure 2.4, is

where Z = elastic section modulus= I

ymax

and ymax is the distance of

the extreme fibers to the neutral axis. For a rectangular section, it can

be shown that

In this case, the yield strain ey is related to the yield curvature ky by

A further increase in bending moment of the cross section spreads

the yielding inward toward the neutral axis. Suppose that the yielding

is extended to the point where the elastic core is within a distance bd

from the neutral axis. The corresponding strain distribution can be calculated

by the constant curvature k shown in Figure 2.8. Hence,

The moment–curvature relationship for a rectangular section has

been established through Equations (2.13) and (2.16). A fully plastic

section is achieved only when b ! 0. In this case, k!1and the plastic

moment for the section is M ¼ Mp ¼ 1:5My. It should be noted

that when the section starts to yield at b ¼ 0.5, the yield curvature is
FIGURE 2.9. Dimensionless moment–curvature relationship for rectangular

sections.

Substituting Equation (2.18) into Equation (2.16), a dimensionless

moment–curvature relationship in terms of the moment ratio

M/My and curvature ratio k/ky can be established. This relationship

for rectangular sections is shown in Figure 2.9.

The plastic moment of any cross-sectional shape can be derived

similarly in the aforementioned manner and the plastic moment can

be expressed generally as

Mp ¼ SMy (2.19)
where S ¼ shape factor of the section.

For some cross-sectional shapes, the derivation of the moment–

curvature relationship could be tedious. With the computational tools

widely available today, the moment–curvature relationship can be

established easily using the numerical method. This can be done by

dividing the cross section into a finite number of strips, and the

moment capacity of the section is calculated by varying the value of

b as in Equation (2.13) for rectangular sections. The steps for using

the numerical method are described here.

1. Assign a value of b for the partial plastification of the cross

section.

2. Calculate the curvature k according to Equation (2.13).

3. Calculate strains for all strips using e ¼ ky, where y is the distance

of the strip from the neutral axis.

4. Calculate the bending stress of the strip using f ¼ Ee.

5. Calculate the axial force in each strip using F ¼ Aif, where Ai

is the area of the strip.

6. Calculate the bending moment of the strip about the neutral

axis using M ¼ Fy.

7. The sum of the moments from all strips is the moment capacity

of the section for an assumed value of b.

8. Repeat steps 1–7, varying the value of b from 0 to the extreme

fibers of the section to obtain the bendingmoments for varying b.

It should be noted that the sumof the axial forces is zero.This is also

the condition for locating the neutral axis if the section is nonsymmetric.

The following example shows the typical procedure for using the

numerical method.