Civil Engineering Topics: Structural Analysis
Structural analysis is the branch which involves the determination of the effects of loads on physical structures and their components such as buildings, bridges, dams, truss, etc. It also employs the fields of applied mechanics, materials science and applied mathematics to calculate a structure's internal forces, deformations, stresses, reactions, accelerations, and stability. Therefore, Structural analysis is a key part of the engineering design of structures.
The structure can be composed of many components such as elements, connected together to provide stability for the transmission of forces. Structural elements are designed to transmit these forces applied to the complete structure. The main objective is to determine the structural response to the load applied to the structure. The behaviour of the structure is the aggregated effect of the behaviour of the element, a study of the behaviour of the element is particularly important. This involves consideration of different types of loads, materials, geometry and the form of the structure. The response of a structure can be measured in many ways such as deformation, stress, and strain in the structure. According to the laws of mechanics, all conditions are inter-related.
Structures can be analyzed by various numerical methods such as force method, displacement method, an approximate method. It also depends upon the types of structures, its configuration, constraints in the complete structure. Structural design starts with specifying loads that act on the structure. There are two types of loads: building loads, and design loads. Dead loads are consisting of self-weight of various structural members and weight of any objects which are permanently attached to the structure. Live loads that vary in their magnitude and location. Building loads, highway loads, impact loads, wind loads, earthquake loads are the type of live loads.
The structure can be statically determinate or indeterminate. If all the unknown forces in the structure can be determined by using only the equation of static equilibrium is known as statically determinate structures. For e.g. cantilever simply supported beam, etc. Statically indeterminate structures are those which cannot be solved by using the equations of static equilibrium alone and requires additional equations to solve the structures. For e.g. fixed ended beam, continuous beam, propped cantilever, etc.
Various topics can be studied in this subject are listed as follows:
- Equilibrium analysis and determinacy of structures
- Basic concepts of stiffness method for different frame structure
- Moment distribution method
- Principle of virtual work
- Flexibility method of analysis
- Approximate analysis of structures
- Application of computer program to structural analysis
