SEDT06

Structural Analysis

Ali Khoshraftar, M.Sc., M.Eng.

Contents

1. Common types of trusses

2. Determinacy and stability of trusses
3. The method of joints and application
4. The method of sections and application
5. Compound and space trusses
6. Class exercises
7. Homework exercises
 Common types of trusses
• A truss is a structure composed of slender members joined together at their end points.
• Because of their light weight and high strength, trusses are widely used, and their
applications range from supporting bridges and roofs of buildings.

• The joint connections are usually

formed by bolting or welding the ends
of the members to a common plate,
called a gusset plate.
Roof Trusses
Roof trusses are often used as part of an industrial building frame.

 Load Path
 The roof load is transmitted to the truss at the joints by
means of a series of purlins.
 Ordinarily, roof trusses are supported either by columns of
wood, steel, or reinforced concrete, or by masonry walls.
 Trusses used to support roofs are selected on the basis of the span, the slope, and the roof material.
• Some of the more common types of trusses used are shown below:
Bridge Trusses.
The main structural elements of a typical bridge truss are shown below.

 Load Path
 Load on the deck is first transmitted to stringers,
 then to floor beams,
 and finally, to the joints of the two supporting side trusses.
• A few of the typical forms of bridge trusses currently used for single spans are shown below:
Assumptions for Design

The analysis of trusses is usually based on the following simplifying assumptions:

1. All members are connected only at their ends by frictionless hinges in plane trusses and by frictionless
ball-and-socket joints in space trusses.

2. All loads and support reactions are applied only at the joints.

3. The centroidal axis of each member coincides with the line connecting the centers of the adjacent joints.

 The reason for making these assumptions is to obtain an ideal truss, whose members are subjected only
to axial forces.

 If the force tends to elongate the member, it is a tensile force (T)

 If the force tends to shorten the member, it is a compressiveforce (C)

• We can define a plane truss as internally stable if the number and geometric arrangement of its members is such
that the truss does not change its shape and remains a rigid body when detached from the supports.

• The term internal is used here to refer to the number and arrangement of members contained within the truss.

• The instability due to insufficient external supports or due to improper arrangement of external supports is
referred to as external.

Basic Truss Element

• The simplest internally stable (or rigid) plane truss can be formed by
connecting three members at their ends by hinges to form a triangle.

 Note that this triangular truss is internally stable in the sense that it is a rigid body
that will not change its shape under loads.

 In contrast, a rectangular truss formed by connecting four members at their ends

by hinges, is internally unstable because it will change its shape and collapse
when subjected to a general system of coplanar forces.
Simple Trusses
• The basic truss element ABC can be enlarged by attaching two new members, BD and CD, to two of the existing
joints B and C and by connecting them to form a new joint D.

• As long as the new joint D does not lie on the straight line
passing through the existing joints B and C, the new enlarged
truss will be internally stable.

• The truss can be further enlarged by repeating the same

procedure as many times as desired.

 Trusses constructed by this procedure are called simple trusses.

 The basic truss element of the simple trusses is identified as ABC in these figures.
Compound Trusses
• Compound trusses are constructed by connecting two or more simple trusses to form a single rigid body.

 To prevent any relative movement between the simple trusses, each truss must be connected to the
other(s) by means of connections capable of transmitting at least three force components, all of which are
neither parallel nor concurrent.

 Two simple trusses ABC and DEF are connected by three members,
BD, CD, and BF, which are nonparallel and nonconcurrent

 The two simpletrusses ABC and DEF are connected by a

common joint C and a member BD. In order for the
compound truss to be internally stable, the common joint C
and joints B and D must not lie on a straight line.
 Does not have a sufficient number
of members to form a rigid body.

 The portions ABE and CDE of the truss can

rotate with respect to each other.

 Member BC can rotate with respect to the rest

of the structure.
Complex Truss
A complex truss is one that cannot be classified as being either simple or compound.
 Determinacy and stability of trusses

• For any problem in truss analysis, it should be realized that the total number of unknowns includes the forces
in b number of bars and the total number of external support reactions r.

 The degree of indeterminacy is

specified by the difference (b + r) - 2j.`
Stability
• If b + r <2j, a truss will be unstable, since there will be an insufficient number of bars or reactions to
constrain all the joints when the truss is loaded.

External Stability
• A structure (or truss) is externally unstable if all of its reactions are concurrent or parallel.
Internal Stability
• The internal stability of a truss can often be checked by careful inspection of the arrangement of its
members.

 For a stable truss, each joint is held fixed so that it cannot move in a “rigid body” sense with respect
to the other joints.
Ex.1) Classify each of the trusses in following figures as stable, unstable, statically determinate, or
statically indeterminate. The trusses are subjected to arbitrary external loadings that are assumed to
be known and can act anywhere on the trusses.
10mins
Break
 The method of joints and application

 If a truss is in equilibrium, then each of its joints must also be in equilibrium.

• Since the truss members are all straight axial force members lying in the same plane, the force system acting
at each joint is coplanar and concurrent.

 Consequently, rotational or moment equilibrium is automatically satisfied at the joint (or pin), and it is
only necessary to satisfy ΣFx = 0 and ΣFy = 0 to ensure translational or force equilibrium.

 When using the method of joints, it is necessary to first draw each joint’s free-body diagram before applying
the equilibrium equations.
 1st Unknown magnitudes
2nd Unknown magnitudes “pushing” on the pin, and consequently
And “pulling” on the pin, which indicates
“member BC is in compression.
that member BA is in tension
(by applying Newton’s third law, of
(by applying Newton’s third law,
action-reaction)
of action-reaction)

 In all cases, the joint analysis should start at a joint having at least one known force and at most two unknown forces.
 We can always assume the unknown member forces acting on the joint’s free-body diagram to be in tension, i.e.,
“pulling” on the pin.
Ex.2) Determine the force in each member of the roof truss. The
dimensions and loadings are shown below. State whether the members
are in tension or compression. The reactions at the supports are given.
Zero-Force Members

 Truss analysis using the method of joints is greatly simplified if one is able to first determine those
members that support no loading.

 These zero-force members may be necessary for the stability of the truss during construction and
to provide support if the applied loading is changed.

 Case1: Two non-collinear members that are

connected together regardless of the angle and
there is no external load
 Case2: Three members which two of them are collinear,
the third member is a zero-force member
Ex.3) Find all the zero-force members of the truss.
Zero-force member(case2)
→FBD=0
10mins
Break
 The method of sections and application
 If the forces in only a few members of a truss are to be found, the method of sections generally provides
the most direct means of obtaining these forces.

 The method of sections consists of passing an imaginary section through the truss, thus cutting it into two parts.

How to “cut” or section the truss?

 Since only three independent equilibrium equations (ΣFx = 0, ΣFy = 0, ΣMO = 0) can
be applied to the isolated part of the truss, try to select a section that, in general,
passes through not more than three members in which the forces are unknown.

FBC, FGC, and FGF =?

 Always assume that the unknown member forces at the section are in tension, i.e., “pulling” on the member.
Ex.4) Determine the force in members GJ and CO of the roof
truss. State whether the members are in tension or compression.
The reactions at the supports are given.
Ex.5) Determine the force in members BC and MC of the K-truss.
State whether the members are in tension or compression.
The reactions at the supports are given.
10mins
Break
 Compound and space trusses
Compound trusses
 Occasionally this type of truss is best analyzed by applying both the method of joints and the method of sections.
Ex.6)
Space trusses
 A space truss consists of members joined together at their ends to form a
stable three-dimensional structure.

 In this case, the simplest element of a stable space truss is a tetrahedron,

formed by connecting six members together with four joints.
Reactions
The types of supports commonly used for space trusses are depicted below:
Determinacy and Stability
 If the truss has b number of bars and r number of reactions,
then like the case of a planar truss, we can write
Class exercises
Exercise 1:
Analyzing a truss
using the method
of joints
Exercise 2:
Analyzing a truss
using the method
of sections
Exercise 3:
Analyzing a truss
using the method
of sections
Homework
Exercises
 Problem 1:
Analyzing a
truss using the
method of
Joints
 Problem 2:
Analyzing a truss
using the method
of Sections
 Problem 3:
Analyzing a truss
using the method
of Joints and
Sections
Problem 4:
Analyzing a
Space truss