| Abstract: | There is no consensus of opinion on the correct expressions for shear stiffness, even in the apparently simple case of rectangular sections made from homogeneous isotropic material. A general beam theory has been proposed which is applicable to all regular prismatic systems. This has been used to find the appropriate beam-like flexibilities for trusses. The same approach can be used for normal beams, giving values for the shear stiffnesses of various cross-sections as particular results of a general theory embracing torsion, binding, extension and shear of regular prismatic systems. |
