Chapter 4 Analysis of Structures Truss Module

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 STATICS OF RIGID BODIES
Chapter 4

ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURES

Analysis of Structures Defined:

Analysis of structures is concerned with the process by which we determine how the applied loads to a
structure are distributed throughout the structure. The purpose of analysis of structures is to determine the
internal forces acting in the bars, called members, and/or upon the joints of the structure. Two types of
structures are supposed to be discussed in this chapter, these are pin connected trusses and pin-connected
frames. For BSA students, we will be discussing only the type of structure that is more relevant to your course,
the pin connected trusses.

Trusses:

A truss is a structure that is made of straight, slender bars that are joined together to form a pattern of
triangles. Trusses are usually designed to transmit forces over relatively long spans; common examples are bridge
trusses and roof trusses. Typical trussesare shown in the figures below.

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The analysis of trusses is based on the following three assumptions:

01. The weights of the members are negligible. A truss can be classified as a lightweight structure,
meaning that the weights of its members are generally much smaller than the loads that it is designed to
carry.

02. All joints are pins. In practice, the members at each joint are usually riveted or welded to a plate, called
a gusset plate, as shown in the figure. However, if the members at a joint are aligned so that their
centroidal axes (axes that pass through the centroids of the cross-sectional areas of the members)
intersect at a common point, advanced methods of analysis indicate that the assumption of pins is
justified. If the joints are pinned, the ability of each joint to resist moment vanishes and therefore
rendering each member of the truss to be a two-force member. A two-force member carries two
collinear forces acting at the ends of the member. These pair of forces could be either a tension (pulling
the member) or a compression (compressing the member)

03. The applied forces act at the joints. Because the members of a truss are slender, they may fail in
bending when subjected to loads applied at locations other than the joints. Therefore, trusses are
designed so that the major applied loads act at the joints.

Methods of Analysis:
1. Method of Joints
2. Method of Sections

Method of Joints:
When using the method of joints to calculate the forces in the members of a truss, the equilibrium
equations are applied to individual joints or pins of the truss. Because the members are two-force members, the
forces in the FBD of a joint are concurrent. Consequently, there are two independent equilibrium equations
available for each joint.

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 Analysis Procedure:

1. If necessary, compute the support reaction components.

2. Choose a joint on which no more than two members act. Draw the FBD of the joint and apply ΣFx = 0
and ΣFy = 0 to determine the internal forces in the two members. After determining the forces, mark
the members with arrows at the ends. Tension forces are represented with arrows directed away
from the joint while compression forces are represented with arrows directed toward the joint.
3. Select again a joint with no more than two unmarked members are joined and draw the FBD of the
joint. Apply the static equations in step #1 to determine the internal forces in the unmarked
members. Mark these members in the truss once their forces are verified.
4. Repeat step #2 for the other joints until all of the members of the truss are marked.

Method of Sections:
Truss analysis by the method of joints is based on the FBD’s of individual joints. Analyzing the free-body
diagram of a part of a truss that contains two or more joints is called method of sections. The FBD of a single
joint results in a concurent, coplanar force system. The resulting force system when method of sections is used is
generally a non-concurrent force system.

In method of sections, a cutting plane (called section) is used to cut the truss into two portions. Either
part is isolated on an FBD so that it exposes the forces to be computed, that is the forces in the cut members. If
the FBD of the isolated portion contaoins three unknowns, all of them can be usually computed from the three
available equations of equiilibrium. If the number of unknbowns exceeds three, one or more of the unknowns
must be found by analyzing a different part of the truss.

Analysis Procedure:

1. If necessary, compute the support reaction components.

2. Pass a plane or section to cut the truss into two portions. The plane should cut no more than three
members of the truss and there must be no member to follow upon the isolation of either portion.
Internal forces will replace the cut members.
3. Draw the FBD of one portion and apply the equilibrium equations for non-concurrent forces to verify
the internal forces in the cut members.
4. Repeat the process if necessary.

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 Illustrative Problems
METHOD OF JOINTS
01. Using the method of joints, determine the force in each member of the truss shown. Indicate whether the
members are in tension or compression.

Solution:
The FBD of the entire truss is shown below. The three unknowns NA, CX, and Cy can be computed from the
three equilibrium equations.

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 The forces acting in the above truss FBD are called external forces. We now
proceed to the computation of the internal forces in the members by analyzing the FBD’s
of various pins. We start the process by considering a joint where only two members are
connected. Joints A and C are the two possible joints to start with the analysis. In this
example, we consider joint A first. At joint A, the external reaction NA act and members
AB and AD are joined. We replace these two members by internal forces acting along the
lines of the members. We can denote these by PAB or FAB (or simply AB) and PAD or FAD (or
simply AD). The force in each member could be either tension or compression. Since
initially, we do not know the nature of the forces in the members we will assume that
both AB and AD are in tension. If the force comes out negative, we have the wrong
assumption. Tensile forces are shown in the FBD by a directed line segment with the
arrow pointing away from the joint while compressive forces are shown in the FBD by a
directed line segment with the arrow pointing toward the joint. The FBD of joint A is now
shown below.

FBD of joint A:
Applying the equations of equilibrium for the joint,

After AB and AD are determined, we call these mark members, meaning we now
know their forces. We now consider another joint where two unmarked members are
joined. Joints B, C, are D are the possible considerations. We choose joint D for this
example.

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FBD of joint D:
Repeating the process, we have

We just repeat the process until all members are marked or determined.

FBD of joint C:

We now summarize our analysis by tabulating the results.

MEMBER FORCE (kN)

AB 28.3 (C)
AD 20.0 (T)
BC 40 (C)
BD 37.1 (T)
CD 10.0 (C)

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02. Determine the forces acting in all the members of the truss shown.

We just repeat the process we used in sample problem 1.

FBD of truss:

Calculating the reaction components using the equations of equilibrium,

∑ 𝑀𝐴 = 0
𝑁𝐶 ( 4 ) − 3 ( 2 ) = 0
∴ 𝑁𝐶 = 1.5 𝑘𝑁

−𝐴𝑦 + 1.5 = 0
∴ 𝐴𝑦 = 1.5 𝑘𝑁

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 −𝐴𝑥 + 3 = 0
∴ 𝐴𝑥 = 3𝑘𝑁

We now consider joint C (again, the first joint that we consider is the joint with only
two members are connected)

FBD of Joint C:

FBD of Joint D:

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If we consider the FBD of joint A, the value of AB can be obtained as

AB = 0.776 kN (C)
Summary:

MEMBER FORCE (kN)

AB 0.776 (C)
AD 4.10 (T)
BC 5.02 (C)
BD 4.10 (T)
CD 4.10 (T)

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03. Compute the force in each member of the loaded cantilever truss by method of
joints.

Solution:
If it were not desired to calculate the external reactions at D and E, the analysis for
a cantilever truss could begin with the joint at the loaded end. However, this truss will be
analyzed completely, so the first step will be to compute the external forces at D and E
from the FBD of the truss as a whole.

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Consider FBD joint A:

Consider FBD joint B:

Consider FBD joint C:

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Consider FBD joint E:

Summary:

MEMBER FORCE (kN)

AB 34.6 T
AC 17.32 C
BC 34.6 C
BD 34.6 T
CD 57.7 T
CE 63.5 C
DE 11.55 C

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METHOD OF SECTIONS

04. Determine the forces in members CH, BC, GH, and DF for the Howe truss loaded as
shown below.

Solution:
The FBD of the entire truss is shown below. I assume that you are capable of
computing the reaction components by using the equilibrium equations. The values of
the reaction components are now shown in the FBD below.

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 It is now obvious that the method of sections is most useful when we analyze a
truss partially. Since there are four required members to solve, we will use the method
of sections more than once. The required members are marked on the truss FBD. Take
note that three of the required members are accomodated in a single cutting plane ①,
these are BC, CH, and GH. So we use cutting section ① to cut the truss into two portions.
We can now consider either portion to analyze, in this example we consider the left
portion.

FBD of left portion:

Since the force system acting on the FBD is non-concurrent, we will use three
equations to solve for the unknown internal forces. Analyzing the force system, there are

means that we can apply the equilibrium equation ∑ 𝐹𝑦 = 0 to obtain CH.

three unknown components along along x-axis but along y-axis there is only one, which

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 Knowing the value of CH, leaves two unknown forces in the FBD. Take note that
either of the two unknown forces are obtainable by using the moment equations. In this
example, we used two moment equations to solve for these two. To obtain BC, we use
moment center H so that CH and GH have no moments leaving only BC as the unknown
force with moment value.

To obtain GH, we use moment center C so that BC and CH do not have moment values.

We now consider cutting section ② to obtain member DH. We consider the right
portion.

FBD of right portion of section ②

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 Three members are cut by the section but only DH is required. Take note that of
the three unknown forces, only DF has a vertical effect and so we can obtain its value by
using

Since CD and EF are not required, we are done with the analysis, but if you wish to obtain
the values of CD and EF, you can do so by using two more equilibrium equations.

Summary:

MEMBER FORCE (lb)

BC 5625 C
CH 625 T
DF 3500 T
GH 5250 T

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05. Using method of sections, determine the forces in members FI and CJ for the truss
shown. Indicate tension or compression.

Solution:
The structure is supported by a hinge or pin at A and a link DE connected at D. The
support reaction components are shown in the FBD of the truss is shown below

The three external reactions (Ax, Ay, and T)

can be calculated using the following equations
(mathematical details have been omitted):

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 Since the two required members are at somewhat far from one another (meaning
it is not possible to use a single cutting plane to include all of the the required members)
we will use two separate cutting planes or sections to verify the force in each member.
We now pass cutting section ① to cut the three members DF, FI, and HI. We now
consider the right portion (because it is much plain and simple than the left portion) and
its FBD is shown below.

There are three unknowns in the FBD. Since

FI is the lone requirement here, we will make use
of an equilibrium equation that can provide us
with the value of FI right away. We could use a
moment equation using a moment center at G.
(Why G? Because the other
unknowns DF and HI are
concurrent at G, therefore their moment values are
both zero.

For CJ, we use cutting section② and consider FBD of the lower portion. The FBD is
shown below.

In here, CJ is the lone requirement. Analyzing the

force system, BC and IJ are parallel and both are acting
vertically making CJ the only unknown force with
horizontal effect. So we the equilibrium force equation
along the horizontal to verify its value.

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Summary:

MEMBER FORCE (N)

FI 2500 C
CJ 3610 T

06. Using the method of sections, compute the forces in members BC and CJ of the
truss loaded as shown below.

Solution:
Since the support reactions are not required, we opt not to calculate for their
values. The reason for this is we will consider left portions of the cutting sections and the
reactive forces will not appear in the FBD’s.

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 Since any vertical section passing through the panel of a K truss cuts four bars, it is
not possible to compute bar forces by the method of sections because the number of
unknowns exceeds the number of equations of statics. Since no moment center exists
through which three of the bar forces pass, not even a partial solution is possible using a
standard vertical section. As we illustrate in this example, it is possible to analyze a K
truss by using two sections in sequence, the first of which is a special section curving
around an interior joint.

To compute the force in member BC, we pass section ①-① through the truss.
The free body to the left of the section is shown. Summing moments about the bottom
joint G gives

To compute CJ, we pass section ②-② through the panel and consider again
the free body to the left. Since the force in bar BC has been evaluated, the three
unknown bar forces can be determined by the equations of statics. Use a moment center
at F. Slide the line of action of force in bar CJ to point C and break into rectangular
components.

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Summary:

MEMBER FORCE (kips)

BC 16 T
CJ 60 T

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 Supplementary Problems

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Compiled from the following references:
1. Engineering Mechanics Statics 3rd Edition Pytel & Kiusalaas
2. Engineering Mechanics 2nd Edition Ferdinand Singer
3. Engineering Mechanics Statics 14th Edition by RC Hibbeler
4. Engineering Mechanics Statics 7th Edition by Meriam & Kraige
5. Fundamentals of Structural Analysis by Leet 5th Edition

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