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Lecture Notes for 2009/10

Semester 2

• Macaulay’s Method for Indeterminate Structures: The deflections of indeterminate flexural structures. Minor updates of last year’s notes.
• Virtual Work…again only minor updates unfortunately.
• Plastic Analysis – new examples and extra explanation make this a thrilling read!

Semester 1

The Lab notes for, well, the laboratory work.

Qualitative Analysis notes for the analysis of structures without numerical calculation.

Basis for the Analysis of Indeterminate Structures – updated from last year’s set – background concepts and commonly used assumptions are explained;

The Moment Area Method notes: lots of updates – hopefully much more interesting! Supporting downloads are:

• MS Excel: spreadsheet for numerical calculation of rotations and deflections;
• Matlab: Moment area script for UDL example;
• Matlab: MomentArea function;
• Matlab: Example 7 deflected shape script;
• Matlab: Example 12 scripts;
• Solution to Problem 3.3-6.

Updated Moment Distribution notes.

Lecture Notes for 2008/9

Semester 2

• Macaulay’s Method for Indeterminate Structures: The deflections of indeterminate flexural structures. An updated set of last year’s notes.
• Virtual Work: Used to analyse frames and trusses for moments and deflections. An updated set of last year’s notes.
• Plastic Analysis: The calculation of the actual collapse load of structural frames, given the capacity of the members. An updated set of last year’s notes.
• Semester 2 Exam information for the revised format;
• Plastic Bending of Beams Lab workings;
• UPDATED set of Plastic Analysis notes, with an extra example.

Christmas Spaghetti Bridge Competition Results 2008/9

* These groups were disqualified due to non-conformance with the specifications of the problem.

First, second, and third were awarded to Groups 2, 4 and 11 respectively (as may be seen by sorting on the SW column). The Faculty Director also awarded Group 5 a special merit prize for their unique entry.

One very intersting aspect of the results is the significant over-estimation of strength across the board, save for Groups 2 and 11. Is it coincidence that these groups were prize-winners?

Semester 1

• Semster 1 Exam Information.
• Semster 1 Exam Sample Paper.
• Semster 1 Exam Handout.
• Bridge Build & Break Competition: specifications.
• Structural Labs: Laboratories 1 & 2 assignments.
• Course Introduction: outlines the course and its aims.
• Basis for Analysis of Indeterminate Structures: Background concepts and commonly used assumptions are explained here.
• Mohr’s Theorems: an updated version of last year’s notes with some new examples and problems.
• Moment Distribution: Some small updates on last year’s notes.

Lecture Notes for 2007/8

• Mohr’s Theorems: Used to calculate deflections and reactions of determinate and indeterminate structures.
• Moment Distribution: Hand method for the analysis of indeterminate structures.
• Structure Characteristics: The identification of the type of structure being analysed and whether it is stable or not and the movement that structures may undergo, covers Stability; Statical Determinacy and Indeterminacy, and; Kinematic Indeterminacy.
• Virtual Work: Used to analyse frames and trusses for moments and deflections.
• Qualitative Analysis: Estimating bending moments etc. without doing any calculations.
• Macaulay’s Method for Indeterminate Structures: The deflections of indeterminate flexural structures.
• Plastic Analysis: The calculation of the actual collapse load of structural frames, given the capacity of the members.
• Compatibility and Superposition: some of the very basics upon which the analysis of indeterminate structures is based.

Software

• LinPro is great for analysing 2D structures. There are no bells & whistles to distract from the basic analysis and you can see the stiffness matrix for each member. The interface is quite easy (apart from the load definitions which are strange!). Well recommended for checking hand calculations and vice versa.
• Macaulay’s Method for a beam with a hinge – the MS Excel file from the example in the notes.
• Virtual Work for continuous beams – the MS Excel file from the example in the notes.
• Total Potential Energy of a simple spring system – graphs from the Virtual Work notes.