Understanding second moment of inertia and why do we need

to know …..
By Dhakshina Perera (Master Mariner) (May 2018)
I had a tough time of understanding this theory while I was doing Mates and masters, referred several
books but was unable find a simple explanation, So thought of writing this article in order to simplify a
complex theory to a seafarer-able level.

I would like to request who ever reading this article, to share this with students who are to sit their
Mates and masters.

I believe this would be a good platform for sharing knowledge, and since I am not involved in any
lecturing.

This is kind of a highly technical subject, even though as seafarers we are not touching this subject in
detail but slightly while solving bilging sums in Ship stability syllabus. This is a physics theory plays a
significant role on the strength of the ship. Also it is a common theory which used in Civil and
mechanical Engineering applications, or in any structural design. Here I am trying to explain above in
simplest form as possible with less mathematics.

Any ocean structures including ships are facing below loads on their hull and not limited to

1.) Bending moments

2.) Sheer forces
3.) Torsional stresses
4.) Local loads

To overcome above forces and stresses, ships are designed with optimum strengthening in order to
overcome the extreme forces acting on her.

Several decades back ships are designed with heavy metal structures to overcome stresses, which
basically increased the displacement of the ship.

It is called “Strength to Weight Ratio” (SWR), which was quite high in several decades back.

But due to the advancement of technology, namely CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics) and FEA(Finite
Element Analysis) and other technological advances gave naval architects a better understanding, in
order to reduce the SWR

Ex- Let’s assume required amount of strength for a ship is “x”

To achieve “x” amount of strength, let’s assume 1000T of steel was required in past decades

And now to achieve the same amount of strength “x”, it may be required 700T of steel only
In both cases “x” is same and total displacement is also same but the lightship displacement has been
reduced significantly as the technology improves, thus the cargo carrying capacity has been increased
for the same displacement and draft.

We shouldn’t be surprised that with the present advancement of nano technology and carbon fibre
structures the light ship displacement will reduce rapidly, which is still expensive.

What if the empty container SWR can be reduced, it would be a huge impact in several areas ex-

1.) What if an empty container weight can be reduced by 01T then a 18000Teu V/l
displacement will reduce by 18000T , how positive it would be from several aspects
2.) The whole world is talking about going green , and it would be a huge energy saving both in
land and sea , due to the energy reduction in handling , transporting containers, leading to
reduction of carbon emission etc

What does it got to do with second moment of inertia(I)

If a ship is considered as a beam, then there are various stresses and moments acting on it as explained
earlier. In order to overcome them ships are either strengthens longitudinally and/or transversely, by
scantlings. It can be shown that geometrical shape of a scantling playing a major role related to strength.

Let’s consider a simple horizontal beam as shown in (Fig.01a of Fig.01) , which is suspended on chokes
given a compression of Force(P) at the centre.
And in ( Fig.01b ) the same beam oriented to the vertical , given the same Force(P)

Which one would bend more? Obviously Beam in (Fig.01a) will bend more, in other words in can be
concluded that Beam in (Fig.01b) giving more resistance to bending.

It is the same beam and same force but behaving differently under a force, when orientation or the
geometry changed.

How to explain this? To explain this, it is required to understand the second moment of the inertia of the
area.

What is second moment of inertia of area(I)

Instead of looking at the definition, let’s look at the following

What is the strength of a beam?

It is basically the resistance to deformation, when a force is acting , if a structure is resisting and
maintain its shape without any deformation it can say that structure is strong .

If a beam is bending (deformation) under a force, ie - Beam is giving less resistance or weak in strength.

Now let’s look at what exactly happens to a beam under a force. Please See (Fig.02)
It can be seen that a beam under a force tends to bend (deformed) , and two types of forces started
acting namely Compression force at the top and Tension Force at the bottom.

While compression forces squeezes material on top, tension force tries to rip the bottom material.

Let’s assume that the beam is a solid metal, where would it be the cracks will appear?

Remember Steel are having elastic property thus in the bottom elasticity will occur , if it reach plastic
property only the permanent deformation will occur and beyond it beam fails and breaking will occur.

How about on top, where compression occurs, there is a good possibility that buckling appear on top,
associated with cracks.

Compression forces create buckling in structures.

Where does a ship is prone to have cracks is it on deck or in keel?

Think of a concrete slab of a building, supported by walls. See (Fig.03)

What about compression resistance of concrete? Take a piece of concrete and compress it from both
sides and what will happen? Is it possible to notice any deformation? Nothing will happen unless a huge
compression force is given; concrete has a very good compression resistance.
But what if a tension is given to the ends? Simply pull in opposite direction , what will happen?

Does concrete have any elasticity property? Not at all , it is significantly less, even the plastic property
also same , then what would happen ? Concrete will crack and break apart.

Concrete comprises of good compression ressistance property and lacking hugely on tension resistance,
and will fail immeadiately compared to steel.

Then why does concrete is reinforced with a steel mesh and where does it normally placed on a wall
supported slab (is it at top level of the slab or at the bottom level of the slab?), See Fig.03

Note:- In a cantilever concrete slab, reinfocement is different , steel reinforcement required where the
tesile forces are appearing.

Obviously steel mesh needs to be placed at bottom level , to compensate the tension , not the
compression.And why steel ?

Steel is cheap with very good elastic property.

Hope above explanation is sufficient to understand the compression and tension forces acting on a
beam.

Now lets consider a cross section of a beam. See Fig.04

In a cross section (ABCD’) in the beam , please note the forces acting. On upper half Compression and
bottom tension forces are acting.What is shown here are the forces created by right hand side of the
beam to the left hand side, vice versa is occuring to the otherside of ABCD’.

Compresion Forces are higher at top and gradually decreasing towards bottom and become zero at XY
line , then change direction and gradually increasing to bottom as tension forces.

At XY line there no any forces acting , hence it is called the NEUTRAL AXIS.

A ship can also be considered as a beam , and there would be a neutral axis .Also note that extreme
forces are acting at deck level and keel level.Special strengthening is required at these levels.

It can be seen that Resultant of all Red forces are acting towards the Left hand side of the beam and
the Resultant of Green Forces acting towards the Right hand side of the beam at the ABCD’ cross
section. Refer to the Fig.05
Bending Moment

Due to both forces, a couple is acting, ie- A moment is getting created to resist bending by the Force(P) ,
Since this moment is resisting the bending thus “BENDING MOMENT”, instead of calling it bending
force.

The lever of the couple is “D” , as D increases the resistance to bend is higher , and vice versa

Hence in a thin beam, resistance to bend is less and bends more due to reduction of lever.

Fig(1a) bends more than Fig(1b)

Calculation of moment

Let’ consider a small area of ABCD’ cross section as (dA), and the compression force acting at a point as
(F) , since dA is very small , force (F) acting throughout the area can be considered as uniform, hence the
total force acting at dA, would be( Refer to Fig.06)
Total force acting at dA = dA x f
Then the moment at dA

Moment = y x dA x f

For the whole area= ∫ 𝑦𝑓𝑑𝐴

Lets multiply and divide the expression by ‘ y’

𝑦
Moment = ∫ 𝑦𝑓 𝑑𝐴
𝑦

By re arranging

𝑓
Moment = ∫ 𝑦 2 𝑑𝐴
𝑦
 𝑓
It can be shown that, as ‘f’ increases linearly with ‘y’, (refer Fig.04), = constant, force per unit
𝑦
distance.

𝑓
=> Moment = ∫ 𝑦 2 𝑑𝐴
𝑦

𝑓
=> Moment = ∫ 𝑦 2 𝑑𝐴
𝑦

=> Moment =∫ 𝑦 2 𝑑𝐴

This is the second moment of Inertia of an area (I)

Why it is called the second moment is that, due to 𝑦 2 , square of y

So it can be concluded that second moment of inertia of an area is basically
representing the bending resistance, in other words the strength of a Beam.

Finding second moment of inertia of an area will give a good idea about the strength of a beam against
deformation by bending.

Second Moment of inertia of area on a rectangular beam

As per Fig.07, area of small strip on rectangular beam cross section is b x dh

Second moment of inertia (I) = ∫ ℎ2 𝑥 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑝
1
ℎ
=∫ 2
1 ℎ2 𝑏𝑑ℎ
−2ℎ

1
ℎ
=∫ 2
1 𝑏ℎ2 𝑑ℎ
−2ℎ

ℎ3 ℎ3
={𝑏 }- {- 𝑏 }
24 24

𝑏ℎ3
=> Second moment of inertia area of a rectangular beam (I) =
12
If breadth of a beam (b) increased by a small amount will increase (I) , but a small increase of height(h) ,
will create a huge increase of (I) due to the third power, increasing bending resistance hugely.

This is a very good tool to get an idea of ship structures and their bending resistance.

Ship Structural Components

In a ship there are basically two types of basic structural components they are PLATES and STIFFNERS.
Let’s consider a ‘T’ scantling, please see Fig.08 and Fig.09, where T scantling subjected to bending,by a
force acting from top.

From above formula for (I), it can be shown that cross section area is a function of strength.

By increasing the cross section area, (I) can be increased, but increase of cross section increases the
weight of the scantling, which is a disadvantage.

A ‘T’ Stiffener consist of a web and a flange

 In Fig.09 It can see that due to the flange, the geometric centre of the cross section shifted up due to
increase of area by flange. Hence the Neutral axis shifted up.

This can be shown mathematically by Parallel axis theorem (Will discuss in a different article)

How about the change of (I) of this section compared to rectangular section? To find it, let’s calculate
(I)

Refer to Fig.10 , and from parallel axis theorem , it can show that , Total second moment of the inertia of
the section,

(I)Total= (I) Web + (I) Flange+ { Area of flange x 𝑑12 + Area of Web x 𝑑22 }

The total (I) has increased by amount of { Area of flange x 𝑑12 + Area of Web x 𝑑22 } more
than the addition of individual(I) of web and flange.

It was shown that increase of (I) is the increase of resistance to deformation. Hence the Strength of the
structure increases.

Furthermore due to the shifting of neutral axis, flange is experiencing only compression forces but web
is experiencing both compression and tensile forces unequally, which one is prone to more buckling or
deformations?
Obviously the web is prone to more buckling due two different forces acting on it unequally.

So it can conclude that shifting of the neutral axis away is better to resist buckling, since there would be
only unidirectional forces.

Now let’s look at a ships bottom plate

A longitudinal has been welded to the ships bottom plate.

In this case what is required to essentially prevent, is the buckling of bottom plate.

If longitudinal is not fitted, the plate’s neutral axis lies in the middle of the plate and plate experience
both extreme compressions and tension at the extreme surfaces. ie buckling can occur

Let’s assume Web is only welded without flange, neutral axis can be shifted up, by increasing the depth
of the web, which then increase the weight.

But as the flange is also present the neutral axis can be lifted up beyond the plate level, thus reducing
the buckling at the plate(now unidirectional forces only acting) and without increasing much weight,
also prevents the buckling along the vertical.

Note- By increasing the number of longitudinals , can shift neutral axis furthermore up.

How to optimize the strength while reducing the weight.

To optimize strength, neutral axis must be shifted as much as possible away from plate. To achieve this
following two options can be used.

1.) By Increasing web depth more than flange breadth

It was shown that increasing web thickness compared height will not make much difference in (I),
But increase of height by a small amount will increase (I) hugely. Furthermore it will shift neutral
axis further. Increase of flange breadth only increases cross section area only.

2.) Increasing Flange thickness more than web thickness

Increasing the flange thickness increases the cross section area and also the height, which increases
(I),at the same time , shift the neutral axis further up, Reducing unequal forces acting at the bottom
plate.

Furthermore by using computers, it can be found, the loads acting on each individual framing system,
and required thickness of the scantling can be decided. This helps to reduce steel required at the same
time preserving the strength.