When a transverse force is applied to a beam, the result is variation in bending normal stresses along the length of the beam. This variation causes a horizontal shear stress within the beam that varies with distance from the neutral axis in the beam. The concept of complementary shear then dictates that a shear stress also exists across the cross section of the beam, in the direction of the original transverse force. As described above, in thin-walled structures, the variation along the thickness of the member can be neglected, so the shear stress across the cross section of a beam that is composed of thin-walled elements can be examined as shear flow, or the shear stress multiplied by the thickness of the element.