The Moment Distribution Method for Beams

Figure 10.6: Indeterminate Beam Analysis using the Moment Distribution Method Example - Analysis Steps for a Single Node

The last step is to sum all of the moments that have been applied to each member end over the entire history of the analysis. Since we have used a table for our analysis (Table 10.1), we can just sum up all of the moment values in each column (each column representing one member end. This step is shown in the last row of the table, and these values give us the real moments are each end of each member.

Using these moments, we can find the shears in the members and then draw the shear and moment diagrams for the beam as shown in Figure 10.7.

Figure 10.7: Indeterminate Beam Analysis using the Moment Distribution Method Example - Shear and Moment Diagrams