Structural Calculations
Structural Calculation is the determination of the effects of loads on physical structures and their components. Structures subject to this type of analysis include all that must withstand loads, such as buildings, bridges, vehicles, machinery, furniture, attire, soil strata, prostheses and biological tissue. Structural analysis incorporates the fields of applied mechanics, materials science and applied mathematics to compute a structure's deformations, internal forces, stresses, support reactions, accelerations, and stability. The results of the calculations are used to verify a structure's fitness for use, often saving physical tests. Structural calculation is thus a key part of the engineering design of structures.
Structures and Loads
A structure refers to a body or system of connected parts used to support a load. Important examples related to Civil Engineering include buildings, bridges, and towers; and in other branches of engineering, ship and aircraft frames, tanks, pressure vessels, mechanical systems, and electrical supporting structures are important. In order to design a structure, one must serve a specified function for public use, the engineer must account for its safety, aesthetics, and serviceability, while taking into consideration economic and environmental constraints. Other branches of engineering work on a wide variety of non building structures.
Classification of structures
A structural system is the combination of structural elements and their materials. It is important for a structural engineer to be able to classify a structure by either its form or its function, by recognizing the various elements composing that structure. The structural elements guiding the systemic forces through the materials are not only such as a connecting rod, a truss, a beam, or a column, but also a cable, an arch, a cavity or channel, and even an angle, a surface structure, or a frame.
Loads
Once the dimensional requirement for a structure have been defined, it becomes necessary to determine the loads the structure must support. In order to design a structure, it is therefore necessary to first specify the loads that act on it. The design loading for a structure is often specified in building codes. There are two types of codes: general building codes and design codes, engineer must satisfy all the codes requirements for a reliable structure.
There are two types of loads that structure engineering must encounter in the design. First type of load is called Dead loads that consist of the weights of the various structural members and the weights of any objects that are permanently attached to the structure. For example, columns, beams, girders, the floor slab, roofing, walls, windows, plumbing, electrical fixtures, and other miscellaneous attachments. Second type of load is Live Loads which vary in their magnitude and location. There are many different types of live loads like building loads, highway bridge Loads, railroad bridge Loads, impact loads, wind loads, snow loads, earthquake loads, and other natural loads.