226 TRUSSES, BEAMS.

AND FRAMES

been discussed in detail in Chapter 1. After computing nodal displacements for each ele-
ment, the element solution is computed by first transforming the nodal displacements back
to the local coordinates as follows:

Axial displacements:

The axial displacement at any point along the element can be computed as follows:

L- S
u(s)= ( L O::5S::5L

The axial strain is simply the first derivative of the axial displacement, giving constant
strain over the element as follows:

The axial stress is a- = EE and axial force in the element is F = a-A. The sign convention
used in these equations assumes that the tension is positive and the compression is negative.

Example 4.1 Six-Bar Truss Consider the simple six-bar pin-jointed structure shown in
Figure 4.2. All members have the same cross-sectional area and are of the same material,
E = 200 GPa and A = 0.001 m2 • The load P = 20 kN and acts at an angle a = 30°. The
dimensions in meters are shown in the figure.
Each, node in the model has two .displacement degrees of freedom and thus there are a
total of ten degrees of freedom as shown in Figure 4.3. The displacements are identified by
the letters u and v with a subscript indicating the corresponding node number.
The calculations are similar to the truss examples presented in Chapter 1. Complete
calculations for this example can be found on the book web site.
The solution summary is as follows:

3
2.5
2
1.5 p
1
0.5
o

o 2 3 4

Figure 4.2. Six-bar truss

 SPACE TRUSSES 227

6 8

5 10 7

"'--'1-------'........ 3

Figure 4.3. Six-bartrussnodaldegrees of freedom

+ MathematicalMATLAB Implementation 4.1 on the Book Web Site:

Analysis of a plane truss

4.2 SPACE TRUSSES

By considering an axially loaded element to be arbitrarily oriented in a three-dimensional

space, we can easily develop an element that can be used to find joint displacements and
axial forces in any space pin-jointed framework. With the local s axis along the axis of the
element, the local element equations are still the same as the two-node axial deformation
element:

where E = elastic modulus of the material, A = area of cross section of the element,
L = length of the element, d, and d z are the displacements along the axis of the element,