Stress resultants
Stress resultants are simplified representations of the stress state in structural elements such as beams, plates, or shells. The geometry of typical structural elements allows the internal stress state to be simplified because of the existence of a "thickness'" direction in which the size of the element is much smaller than in other directions. As a consequence the three traction components that vary from point to point in a cross-section can be replaced with a set of resultant forces and resultant moments. These are the stress resultants (also called membrane forces, shear forces, and bending moment) that may be used to determine the detailed stress state in the structural element. A three-dimensional problem can then be reduced to a one-dimensional problem (for beams) or a two-dimensional problem (for plates and shells).
Stress resultants are defined as integrals of stress over the thickness of a structural element. The integrals are weighted by integer powers the thickness coordinate z (or x3). Stress resultants are so defined to represent the effect of stress as a membrane force N (zero power in z), bending moment M (power 1) on a beam or shell (structure). Stress resultants are necessary to eliminate the z dependency of the stress from the equations of the theory of plates and shells.
Consider the element shown in the adjacent figure. Assume that the thickness direction is x3. If the element has been extracted from a beam, the width and thickness are comparable in size. Let x2 be the width direction. Then x1 is the length direction.
The resultant force vector due to the traction in the cross-section (A) perpendicular to the x1 axis is
where e1, e2, e3 are the unit vectors along x1, x2, and x3, respectively. We define the stress resultants such that
where N11 is the membrane force and V2, V3 are the shear forces. More explicitly, for a beam of height t and width b,
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