 The concept of bending moment is very important in engineering (particularly in civil and mechanical engineering) and physics.Tensile and compressive stresses increase proportionally with bending moment, but are also dependent on the second moment of area of the cross-section of a beam (that is, the shape of the cross-section, such as a circle, square or I-beam being common structural shapes).Failure in bending will occur when the bending moment is sufficient to induce tensile stresses greater than the yield stress of the material throughout the entire cross-section.