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Ancient Column Structure (Athens, Greece) [1]

A beam in engineering was originally as simple as a solid piece of timber that was used as a beam for a house, a plow, or a balance.
Beams were designed to carry a load in multiple different structures, such as buildings, bridges, etc.

The first I-beam was developed in 1849 by Alphonse Halbou.
The I-beam is an iconic beam in engineering because of sleek design and functionality.
The world's first steel building which was constructed in 1889 used I-beams which showed engineers around the world the strength of the I-beam.
The first I-beams could support approximately 20 stories, however when Henry Grey adjusted the design to reduce the internal stresses of the beam, then I-beams were able to be built larger and stronger which thus resulted in larger buildings [2].

- Shear failure occurs when the beam's shear resistance is lower than the flexural strength, and the shear force exceeds the shear capacity of the different materials in the beam.
- These types of failures are sudden and provide no warning [3].

- - This occurs when vertical cracks develop at the bottom of a beam due to flexural tensile stress.
  - As the load on the beam increases the crack grows as well, it expands in width and length and bends in a diagonal direction.
  - The beam then undergoes shear tension failure.
  - This failure occurs in beams with low to no web reinforcement [3].

- - This occurs through the development of cracks in the beams cross-section. These cracks propagate and penetrate the compression zone of the beam.
  - The failure occurs when the compressive strength of the concrete is exceeded [3].

- - This occurs when the shear span to depth ratio of the beam is less than one.
  - These types of beams transfer loads directly to supports, while having a much higher shear strength than in common flexural beams [3].

- - This failure occurs when concrete splits along it's longitudinal reinforcement due to small diagonal cracks.
  - The main reinforcement is not adequately anchored beyond the small cracks [3].

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