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Tips & Tricks: Making the most of Inflection Points


Inflection: Fixed ends beam In a rigid beam under bending, the bending moment passes through zero twice along the length of the beam. These two points are called points of inflection. This means that there is virtually no bending stress at these points, and only the shear load needs to be carried.

One very handy application of this is found in pressure vessel design:

By placing welds at the inflection points there is no flexing of the weld as the pressure fluctuates, which is ideal in a fatigue loading situation.

Inflection: Pressure Vessel

[Images sourced from "O.W.Blodgett, Design of Weldments"]


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