A Note on the Bending Moment Induced in the Booms of a Spar at the Point of Application of a Concentrated Load

Summary

The effect of a concentrated load, such as occurs in a wing spar at the fuselage, is to cause a discontinuity in shear strain of the spar web, which induces a bending moment in the booms through the medium of the rivets (or bolts) which attach the booms to the web. A mathematical theory is developed which shows that this bending induced in the boom is of a damped wave form starting at the point of application of the shear, and in practice the magnitude of the stresses produced by the bending moment may be appreciable at the wing root when the boom is deep compared with the spar depth (say 20 per cent.).

Further experimental verification is desirable, but a single wing test suggested the original investigation, and showed a measure of agreement with the theory.