This simulator moves an inspection section through a pin-and-roller beam test frame, letting you trace applied point and distributed loads into support reactions, internal shear jumps, bending moments and Euler-Bernoulli elastic deflection in real time.
• A real-time 3D cutaway workbench with a prismatic beam, pin and roller supports, a movable point-load actuator, a distributed-loading rail, a sliding inspection cut and top/bottom fiber stress coloring, with home view, focus-selected-part, toggleable full enclosure, exploded view, auto-rotate, expand and show/hide labels controls. • Adjustable support span (2-10 m), downward point load (0-100 kN), uniform downward load (0-20 kN/m), point-load location (10-90% of span), inspection section position (0-100% of span), rectangular section width (100-400 mm) and depth (150-600 mm), and elastic modulus (70-210 GPa). • Playback controls: pause/resume, advance 0.1 s, advance 1 s, and five speed settings (100x/10x slow motion, real time, 10x faster, 1 minute per second). • A Curves & measurements tab with a section bending-stress profile chart, live shear and moment charts, the underlying model equations (reactions, V(x), M(x), stress and deflection formulas) and snapshot readouts (reactions, equilibrium residual, section shear/moment/deflection, maximum deflection, maximum moment, extreme-fiber stress, maximum shear stress, second moment of area). • An Experiments tab with four guided fixtures (centered point load, uniform load only, load moved left, changed beam depth) and a model verification bench that runs independent deterministic checks against a fresh model without disturbing your live trial, plus a timestamped event log and a copyable trial report. • A Learn & assess tab with guided lessons on equilibrium, section cuts, shear/moment relationships and stiffness versus force, a knowledge-check quiz with reset, and a written model-scope statement with a technical reference link.
Cutting the beam at any point exposes the internal shear force and bending moment needed to keep the free body in equilibrium. As the inspection section sweeps across the span, the simulator recomputes V(x) = RA − wx − P·H(x−a) and M(x) = RA·x − wx²/2 − P·max(x−a, 0), so you can watch the shear jump by the point-load magnitude at the load location while the moment stays continuous.
Between point loads, dV/dx = −w and dM/dx = V, so the moment reaches its maximum where shear crosses zero or jumps sign across a point load. The stress profile chart converts the internal moment into top-compression/bottom-tension fiber stress using σ = My/I.
For this statically determinate pin-and-roller arrangement, elastic modulus and section size change stress and deformation but never change the reactions or internal load resultants — those come from statics alone. The experiments deliberately isolate this distinction, for example by halving the section depth to show an eightfold drop in second moment of area, a fourfold stress increase and an eightfold deflection increase, with reactions unchanged.
This is a linear-elastic, prismatic Euler-Bernoulli beam model with pin/roller supports and downward static loading only. It excludes shear deformation, lateral-torsional buckling, plasticity, dynamics and support settlement, uses 201 sampling stations for the deflection maximum, flags rather than solves large-deflection conditions, performs no design-code capacity check, and magnifies the visual deformation for inspection.
A concentrated point load creates a discontinuity (jump) in the internal shear force equal to the load magnitude, while bending moment — the integral of shear — remains continuous unless an applied point moment exists at that location.
No. For this statically determinate pin-and-roller beam, the reactions are set entirely by statics (force and moment equilibrium). Elastic modulus only affects the elastic deformation calculation, not the reactions or internal force resultants.
Reducing depth shrinks the second moment of area I = bh³/12 rapidly — halving depth from 350 mm to 175 mm reduces I by a factor of eight, which increases bending stress fourfold and elastic deflection eightfold, while the reactions stay unchanged.
No. It is a linear-elastic, prismatic Euler-Bernoulli model without shear deformation, lateral-torsional buckling, plasticity, dynamics, support settlement or any design-code capacity check. A qualified structural engineer must perform any real beam design.