Drawing No. EH–CS–001 // Civil & Structural Engineering

Beam & Column Calculator

Reviewed August 2026

Check bending stress and deflection for a simply supported beam, or Euler buckling capacity for a column.

Inputs

Span length, L m

Simply supported beam, point load at midspan

Point load at midspan, P kN

Standard steel section preset

Major-axis elastic properties from the ArcelorMittal European sections catalogue. Selecting a preset fills I and S; verify the bending axis and current manufacturer data.

Moment of inertia, I cm⁴

Section modulus, S cm³

Modulus of elasticity, E GPa

200 GPa ≈ structural steel

Results

Max bending moment —

Bending stress —

Midspan deflection —

Beam diagram

The beam visual updates with span and load. The deflected shape and bending-moment diagram are schematic and deliberately exaggerated for clarity.

Assumptions and interpretation

Linear-elastic material behaviour and small deflections.
Constant prismatic cross-section.
Static central point load on a simply supported beam.
Euler–Bernoulli bending; shear deformation is neglected.
No lateral-torsional buckling, local buckling or connection effects.
No residual stress, geometric imperfection or load eccentricity.

Column warning: Euler buckling is only appropriate for slender elastic columns. A large numerical Euler load does not prove that a real column is safe.

Moment of inertia, I

A geometric measure of resistance to bending and deflection about a specified axis. Larger I generally means a stiffer member.

Section modulus, S

A geometric measure used to convert bending moment into extreme-fibre stress: σ = M/S. It depends on the bending axis and section shape.