Course overview
This course is intended to provide students with a thorough understanding of the theory and application of structural analysis as it applies to trusses, beams and frames. This course is a core course for students studying Civil Engineering and Architectural and Structural Engineering. Emphasis is placed on developing the student's ability to both model and analyse statically determinate and indeterminate structures. The course will demonstrate the determination of loading from Australian standards, the distribution to structural members and the pathways that loads take to get to a structures foundations. The course is taught in a flipped class mode, with on campus workshops reinforcing the course material supplied in the lecture notes and pre-recorded videos. Theoretical mechanics components are assessed via regular assignments and the final examination. A group design project allows students to demonstrate the application of mechanics, learnt in their degree program to this point, and loading and load paths to the design of a realistic structure in conjunction.
Course learning outcomes
- Determine the design loading on structures using design codes and assess the Load paths for common structural forms
- Determine if a structure is statically determinate and apply principles from statics, or apply approximate methods of analysis to determine the internal forces in frames
- Identify points of certainty regarding a structures deformation / rotation to qualitatively construct shear force and bending moment diagrams for both statically determinate and indeterminate structures
- Apply Euler beam theory to calculate the deflection of beams using the double integration method
- Apply the principle of virtual work to calculate the deflections and internal forces of structures
- Demonstrate the analysis of both sway and no-sway frame structures using the Slope-Deflection equations