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ELEMENTARY STRUCTURAL
ANALYSIS
Lecture # 3

Department of Civil Engineering

Khwaja Fareed University of
Engineering & Information Technology,
RYK

Equilibrium of Structures
“A structure is considered to be in equilibrium if, initially at
rest, it remains at rest when subjected to a system of forces
and couples.”

• If a structure is in equilibrium, then all its members and

parts are also in equilibrium
• In order for a structure to be in equilibrium, all the forces
and couples (including support reactions) acting on it
must balance each other, and there must neither be a
resultant force nor a resultant couple acting on the
structure

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Equilibrium of Structures
• For a space (three-dimensional) structure subjected to
three-dimensional systems of forces and couples (Fig.
3.1), the conditions of zero resultant force and zero
resultant couple can be expressed in a Cartesian (xyz)
coordinate system as:

Fig: 3.1

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Equilibrium of Structures
• These six equations are called the equations of equilibrium of space
structures and are the necessary and sufficient conditions for
equilibrium
• The first three equations ensure that there is no resultant force acting
on the structure, and the last three equations express the fact that
there is no resultant couple acting on the structure
• For a plane structure lying in the xy plane and subjected to a coplanar
system of forces and couples (Fig. 3.2), the necessary and sufficient
conditions for equilibrium can be expressed as

• These three equations are referred to as the equations of equilibrium

of plane structures

Equilibrium of Structures

Fig: 3.2

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Concurrent Force System

• When a structure is in equilibrium under the action of a concurrent
force system—that is, the lines of action of all the forces intersect at a
single point—the moment equilibrium equations are automatically
satisfied, and only the force equilibrium equations need to be
considered
• Therefore, for a space structure subjected to a concurrent three
dimensional force system, the equations of equilibrium are

• Similarly, for a plane structure subjected to a concurrent coplanar

force system, the equilibrium equations can be expressed as

External & Internal Forces

• The forces and couples to which a structure may be subjected can be
classified into two types, external forces and internal forces
External Forces
• External forces are the actions of other bodies on the structure under
consideration
• External forces may further be classified into two types
1. Applied Forces
2. Reaction Forces
• Applied forces are usually referred to as Loads. These forces have
tendency to move structures and are usually known in structural
analysis

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External & Internal Forces

• Reaction forces, or reactions, are the forces exerted by supports on
the structure and have a tendency to prevent its motion and keep it in
equilibrium
• The reactions are usually among the unknowns to be determined by
the analysis

External & Internal Forces

Internal Forces
• Internal forces are the forces and couples exerted on a member or
portion of the structure by the rest of the structure
• These forces develop within the structure and hold the various
portions of it together
• The internal forces always occur in equal but opposite pairs, because
each member or portion exerts back on the rest of the structure the
same forces acting upon it but in opposite directions, according to
Newton’s third law
• The internal forces are also among the unknowns in the analysis and
are determined by applying the equations of equilibrium to the
individual members or portions of the structure

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External & Internal Forces

Types of Supports For Plane Structures

• Supports are used to attach structures to the ground or other bodies,
thereby restricting their movements under the action of applied loads
• The loads tend to move the structures; but supports prevent the
movements by exerting opposing forces, or reactions, to neutralize the
effects of loads, thereby keeping the structures in equilibrium
• The type of reaction a support exerts on a structure depends on the
type of supporting device used and the type of movement it prevents
• A support that prevents translation of the structure in a particular
direction exerts a reaction force on the structure in that direction
• A support that prevents rotation of the structure about a particular axis
exerts a reaction couple on the structure about that axis
• The types of supports commonly used for plane structures are
depicted in Fig. 3.3.
• These supports are grouped into three categories, depending on the
number of reactions (1, 2, or 3) they exert on the structures

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Internal Stability
• A structure is considered to be internally stable,
or rigid, if it maintains its shape and remains a
rigid body when detached from the supports.
• Some examples of internally stable structures are
shown in Figure.
• Note that each of the structures shown forms a
rigid body, and each can maintain its shape under
loads

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• Conversely, a structure is termed internally unstable (or

non rigid) if it cannot maintain its shape and may undergo
large displacements under small disturbances when not
supported externally.
• Figure 3.8 shows some examples of internally unstable
structures.
• A careful look at these structures indicates that each
structure is composed of two rigid parts, AB and BC,
connected by a hinged joint B, which cannot prevent the
rotation of one part with respect to the other

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Static Determinacy of Internally Stable Structures

• An internally stable structure is considered to be statically

determinate externally if all its support reactions can be
determined by solving the equations of equilibrium
• Since there are only three equilibrium equations, they
cannot be used to determine more than three reactions.
Thus, a plane structure that is statically determinate
externally must be supported by exactly three reactions
• Some examples of externally statically determinate plane
structures are shown in Fig. 3.9.
• It should be noted that each of these structures is
supported by three reactions that can be determined by
solving the three equilibrium equations

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Static Determinacy of Internally Stable Structures

Static Determinacy of Internally Stable

Structures
• If a structure is supported by more than three reactions, then all the
reactions cannot be determined from the three equations of
equilibrium. Such structures are termed statically indeterminate
externally
• The reactions in excess of those necessary for equilibrium are called
external redundants, and the number of external redundants is
referred to as the degree of external indeterminacy
• Thus, if a structure has “r” reactions then the degree of external
indeterminacy can be written as

• Figure 3.10 shows some examples of externally statically

indeterminate plane structures

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Static Determinacy of Internally Stable Structures

Examples of Statically Indeterminate Structures

External Stability
• If a structure is supported by fewer than three support reactions, the
reactions are not sufficient to prevent all possible movements of the
structure in its plane
• Such a structure cannot remain in equilibrium under a general system
of loads and is, therefore, referred to as statically unstable externally
• An example of such a structure is shown in Fig.3.11.

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Static Determinacy of Internally Stable Structures

• The conditions of static instability, determinacy, and indeterminacy of
plane internally stable structures can be summarized as follows:

• It should be realized that the first of three conditions stated in Eq.

(3.8) is both necessary and sufficient in the sense that if r < 3, the
structure is definitely unstable

Geometric instability
• However, the remaining two conditions, r = 3 and r > 3, although
necessary, are not sufficient for static determinacy and indeterminacy,
respectively
• In other words, a structure may be supported by a sufficient number
of reactions but may still be unstable due to improper arrangement of
supports
• Such structures are referred to as geometrically unstable externally
• The two types of reaction arrangements that cause geometric
instability in plane structures are shown in Fig. 3.12
• The truss in Fig. 3.12(a) is supported by three parallel reactions. It
can be seen from this figure that although there is a sufficient number
of reactions, all of them are in the vertical direction, so they cannot
prevent translation of the structure in the horizontal direction
• The truss is, therefore, geometrically unstable

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Fig. 3.12

Geometric instability
• The other type of reaction arrangement that causes
geometric instability is shown in Fig. 3.12(b). In this case,
the beam is supported by three nonparallel reactions.
However, since the lines of action of all three reaction
forces are concurrent at the same point, A, they cannot
prevent rotation of the beam about point A
• So, two conditions of geometric instability are
1. All reactions are parallel
2. All reactions are concurrent

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Static Determinacy of Internally Unstable Structures

• Consider an internally unstable structure composed of two

rigid members AB and BC connected by an internal hinge
at B, as shown in Fig. 3.13(a)

Static Determinacy of Internally Unstable Structures

• The structure is supported by a roller support at A and a

hinged support at C, which provide three nonparallel non
concurrent external reactions. As this figure indicates,
these reactions, which would have been sufficient to fully
constrain an internally stable or rigid structure, are not
sufficient for this structure
• The structure can, however, be made externally stable by
replacing the roller support at A by a hinged support to
prevent the horizontal movement of end A of the structure.
• Thus, as shown in Fig. 3.13(b), the minimum number of
external reactions required to fully constrain this structure
is four

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Static Determinacy of Internally Unstable Structures

• Obviously, the three equilibrium equations are not sufficient to
determine the four unknown reactions at the supports for this
structure
• However, the presence of the internal hinge at B yields an additional
equation that can be used with the three equilibrium equations to
determine the four unknowns.
• The additional equation is based on the condition that an internal
hinge cannot transmit moment; that is, the moments at the ends of the
parts of the structure connected to a hinged joint are zero
• Therefore, when an internal hinge is used to connect two
portions of a structure, the algebraic sum of the moments about the
hinge of the loads and reactions acting on each portion of the
structure on either side of the hinge must be zero

Static Determinacy of Internally Unstable Structures

• Thus, for the structure of Fig. 3.13(b), the presence of the internal
hinge at B requires that the algebraic sum of moments about B of the
loads and reactions acting on the individual members AB and BC
must be zero
• That is

MBAB 0 & MBBC  0

• Such equations are commonly referred to as the equations of
condition
• Thus, an internal hinge connecting two members or portions of a
structure provides one independent equation of condition

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• Occasionally, connections are used in structures that

permit not only relative rotations of the member ends but
also relative translations in certain directions of the ends
of the connected members.
• Such connections are modelled as internal roller joints for
the purposes of analysis.
• Figure 3.15 shows a structure consisting of two rigid
members AB and BC that are connected by such an
internal roller at B

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• Since an internal roller can transmit neither moment nor

force in the direction parallel to the supporting surface, it
provides two equations of conditions:
•

Static Determinacy of Internally Unstable Structures

• From the foregoing discussion, we can conclude that if

there are ec equations of condition (one equation for each
internal hinge and two equations for each internal roller)
for an internally unstable structure, which is supported by
r external reactions, then if

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Static Determinacy of Internally Unstable Structures

• For an externally indeterminate structure, the degree of

external indeterminacy is expressed as

Example 3.1 (Structural Analysis by Asslam Kassimali 5th edition)

• Classify each of the structures shown in Fig. 3.17 as

externally unstable, statically determinate, or statically
indeterminate. If the structure is statically indeterminate
externally, then determine the degree of external
indeterminacy.

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Solution

• This beam is internally stable with r = 5 > 3

• Therefore, it is statically indeterminate externally with the
degree of external indeterminacy of
• ie = r - 3 = 5 - 3 = 2

• This beam is internally unstable.

• It is composed of two rigid members AB and BC
connected by an internal hinge at B.
• For this beam, r = 6 and ec = 1.
• Since r > 3 + ec, the structure is statically indeterminate
externally with the degree of external indeterminacy of
• ie = r – (3 + ec) = 6 – (3 + 1) = 2

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• The beam is internally unstable.

• For this structure, r = 6 and ec = 3.
• Since r = 3 + ec.
• 6 = 3 + 3, so structure is statically determinate externally.

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Related Problems
• Structural Analysis by Asslam Kassimali 5th edition
• Problems 3.1 to 3.4
• Structural Analysis by R. C. Hibbeler 9th edition
• Problems 3.1 to 3.4

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References
• Asslam Kassimali, Structural Analysis,
CENGAGE Learning, 5th Edition (2014).
• Topics (3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4)
• R. C. Hibbeler, Structural Analysis, Prentice Hall,
9th Edition (2016).
• Topics (2.3, 2.4)

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