Flexural stress, also known as bending stress, is a type of stress that occurs when a material or structural element is subjected to bending or flexural loads. This type of stress is common in beams, bridges, columns, and other structural components. The flexural stress formula calculates the stress experienced by a material due to bending.
where
-
- = Flexural stress (in pascals, Pa)
- = Bending moment (in newton-meters, N·m)
- = Distance from the neutral axis to the outermost fiber (in meters, m)
- = Moment of inertia of the cross-sectional area (in meters to the fourth power, m⁴)