ABSTRACT
Beams under vertical loads are almost always encountered in structural work. Furthermore, the computation of shear forces, bending moments, slopes, and deflections is often so tedious that it becomes worthwhile at times to make use of the digital computer via the method of finite elements. The method of finite elements for beams computes the desired information for each finite element and then adjusts the results (there will be constants of integration) so that when the elements are put together there results a smooth deformation for the beam that closely resembles the deformation found by the usual analytical methods of integration. The finite element approach gives the desired information at the nodal points of the finite elements comprising the beam, rather than at all points as is the case for analytical solutions.
