TABLE OF CONTENTS The methods described in Chapter 16 are basically methods of analysis which are suitable for use with a hand calculator. They also provide an insight into the physical behaviour of structures under different loading conditions and it is this fundamental knowledge which enables the structural engineer to design structures which are capable of fulfilling their required purpose. However, the more complex a structure the lengthier, and more tedious, hand methods of analysis become and the more the approximations which have to be made. It was this situation which led, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, to the development of matrix methods of analysis and, at the same time, to the emergence of high-speed, electronic, digital computers. Conveniently, matrix methods are ideally suited to expressing structural theory in a form suitable for numerical solution by computer.
The modern digital computer is capable of storing vast amounts of data and producing solutions for highly complex structural problems almost instantaneously. There is a wide range of program packages available which cover static and dynamic problems in all types of structure from skeletal to continuum. Unfortunately these packages are not foolproof and so it is essential for the structural engineer to be able to select the appropriate package and to check the validity of the results; without a knowledge of fundamental theory this is impossible.
In Section 16.1 we discussed the flexibility and stiffness methods of analysis of statically indeterminate structures and saw that the flexibility method involves releasing the structure,...
