Theory of Structures

Structural system, in building construction, the particular method of assembling and

constructing structural elements of a building so that they support and transmit applied
loads safely to the ground without exceeding the allowable stresses in the members. Basic
types of systems include bearing-wall, post-and-lintel, frame, membrane, and suspension.
They fall into three major categories: low-rise, high-rise, and long-span. Systems for long-
span buildings (column-free spaces of more than 100 feet, or 30 metres) include tension and
compression systems (subject to bending) and funicular systems, which are shaped to
experience either pure tension or pure compression. Bending structures include the girder
and two-way grids and slabs. Funicular structures include cable structures, membrane
structures, and vaults and domes.
Bearing wall, orload-bearing wall, Wall that carries the load of floors and roof above in
addition to its own weight. The traditional masonry bearing wall is thickened in proportion
to the forces it has to resist: its own weight, the dead load of floors and roof, the live load of
people, as well as the lateral forces of arches, vaults, and wind. Such walls may be much
thicker toward the base, where maximum loads accumulate. Bearing walls may also be
framed and sheathed or constructed of reinforced concrete.
Post-and-lintel system, in building construction, a system in which two upright members,
the posts, hold up a third member, the lintel, laid horizontally across their top surfaces. All
structural openings have evolved from this system, which is seen in pure form only in
colonnades and in framed structures, because the posts of doors, windows, ceilings, and
roofs normally form part of the wall.
Framed building, structure in which weight is carried by a skeleton or framework, as
opposed to being supported by walls. The essential factor in a framed building is the frame’s
strength. Timber-framed or half-timbered houses were common in medieval Europe. In this
type the frame is filled in with wattle and daub or brick. A modern lightweight wood-frame
structure, the balloon-frame house with wood cladding, was invented in Chicago and helped
make possible the rapid settlement of the western United States. The framed building
enjoyed an extensive revival after World War II as the basic form of American suburban
housing. Steel and reinforced concrete are the most common materials in large
contemporary structures. During the 19th century, brick or stone walls continued to bear
loads, though cast-iron framing was sometimes used supplementarily, being embedded in
walls or sometimes freestanding. True skeletal construction on a large scale was first
achieved in Chicago by William Le Baron Jenney in the Home Insurance Company Building
(1884–85). This building featured a frame of both iron and steel. In the 20th century
reinforced concrete emerged as steel’s main competitor.

The French architect Auguste Perret was the first to give external expression to a framed
building (1903); he exposed as much as possible the reinforced-concrete framework of his
buildings and eliminated most nonstructural elements. Contemporary architecture has done
away with most traditional walls altogether by the use of metal and glass screens, or curtain
walls, as exterior cladding.
Membrane structure, Structure with a thin, flexible surface (membrane) that carries loads
primarily through tensile stresses. There are two main types: tent structures and pneumatic
structures. The Denver International Airport (1995) features a terminal building roofed by a
white membrane stretched from steel masts. Another such structure is London’s The O2
(formerly Millennium Dome), which has a tensioned membrane structure with a diameter of
320 metres (1,050 feet), one of the largest in the world.
Cable structure, Form of long-span structure that is subject to tension and uses suspension
cables for support. Highly efficient, cable structures include the suspension bridge, the
cable-stayed roof, and the bicycle-wheel roof. The graceful curve of the huge main cables of
a suspension bridge is almost a catenary, the shape assumed by any string or cable
suspended freely between two points. The cable-stayed roof is supported from above by
steel cables radiating downward from masts that rise above roof level. The bicycle-wheel
roof involves two layers of tension cables radiating from an inner tension ring and an outer
compression ring, which in turn is supported by columns.
Vault, in building construction, a structural member consisting of an arrangement of arches,
usually forming a ceiling or roof.

four common types of vault

Four common types of vault. A barrel vault (also called a cradle vault, tunnel vault, or wagon
vault) has a semicircular cross section. A groin (or cross) vault is formed by the
perpendicular intersection of two barrel vaults. A rib (or ribbed) vault is supported by a
series of arched diagonal ribs that divide the vault's surface into panels. A fan vault is
composed of concave sections with ribs spreading out like a fan.
The basic barrel form, which appeared first in ancient Egypt and the Middle East, is in effect
a continuous series of arches deep enough to cover a three-dimensional space. It exerts the
same kind of thrust as the circular arch and must be buttressed along its entire length by
heavy walls with limited openings. Roman architects discovered that two barrel vaults that
intersected at right angles formed a groin vault, which, when repeated in series, could span
rectangular areas of unlimited length. Because the groin vault’s thrusts are concentrated at
all four corners, its supporting walls need not be massive and require buttressing only
where they support the vault. The groin vault, however, requires great precision in stone
cutting, an art that declined in the West with the fall of Rome. Vaulting was continued and
improved in the Byzantine Empire and in the Islamic world. Medieval European builders
developed a modification, the rib vault, a skeleton of arches or ribs on which the masonry
could be laid. The medieval mason used pointed arches; unlike round arches, these could be
raised as high over a short span as over a long one. To cover rectangular areas, the mason
used two intersecting vaults of different widths but of the same height. Nineteenth-century
builders, using new materials, could construct large iron skeletons as frameworks for vaults
of lightweight materials—for example, the glass-vaulted Crystal Palace of the 1851 Great
Exhibition in London. Because the new materials eliminated weight and thrust problems,
the simple barrel vault returned to favour for such structures as railroad terminals and
exhibition halls. In many modern frame systems the vault has lost its functional significance
and become a thin skin laid over a series of arches. The reinforced-concrete shell vault, a
bent or molded slab, is an important innovation. The steel-reinforced shell exerts no lateral
thrust and may be supported as if it were a beam.

Dome, in architecture, hemispherical structure evolved from the arch, usually forming a
ceiling or roof. Domes first appeared as solid mounds and in techniques adaptable only to
the smallest buildings, such as round huts and tombs in the ancient Middle East, India, and
the Mediterranean. The Romans introduced the large-scale masonry hemisphere. The dome
exerts thrusts all around its perimeter, and the earliest monumental examples, such as the
Roman Pantheon, required heavy supporting walls. Byzantine architects invented a
technique for raising domes on piers, permitting lighting and communication from four
directions. The transition from a cubic base to the hemispherical dome was achieved by four
pendentives, inverted triangular masses of masonry curved both horizontally and vertically,
as shown in the figure. Their apexes rested on the four piers, to which they conducted the
forces of the dome; their sides joined to form arches over openings in the four faces of the
cube; and their bases met in a complete circle to form the dome foundation. The
pendentive dome could rest directly on this circular foundation or upon a cylindrical wall,
called a drum, inserted between the two to increase height.

Displaced architecturally by the light, vertical styles of Gothic architecture, the dome
regained popularity during the European Renaissance and Baroque periods. Vaulting is
simpler than doming, and so the effort and ingenuity devoted to doming rectangular
structures must be explained principally by the symbolic character of the dome. The desire
to observe tradition preserved the dome in the early era of iron and steel construction. The
modern reinforced concrete slab used in vaulting can be curved in length as well as width to
form a dome. Here the distinction between vaults and domes has lost its original
significance, being based only on the type of curvature in the slab.

Shell structure, in building construction, a thin, curved plate structure shaped to transmit
applied forces by compressive, tensile, and shear stresses that act in the plane of the
surface. They are usually constructed of concrete reinforced with steel mesh (see
shotcrete). Shell construction began in the 1920s; the shell emerged as a major long-span
concrete structure after World War II. Thin parabolic shell vaults stiffened with ribs have
been built with spans up to about 300 ft (90 m). More complex forms of concrete shells
have been made, including hyperbolic paraboloids, or saddle shapes, and intersecting
parabolic vaults less than 0.5 in. (1.25 cm) thick. Pioneering thin-shell designers include Felix
Candela and Pier Luigi Nervi.

Prestressed concrete is concrete that has had internal stresses introduced to counteract, to
the degree desired, the tensile stresses that will be imposed in service. The stress is usually
imposed by tendons of individual hard-drawn wires, cables of hard-drawn wires, or bars of
high strength alloy steel. Prestressing may be achieved either by pretensioning or by post-
tensioning. To pretension concrete the steel is first tensioned in a frame or between
anchorages external to the member. The concrete is then cast around it. After the concrete
has developed sufficient strength the tension is slowly released from the frame or
anchorage to transfer the stress to the concrete to which the tendons have by that time
become bonded. The force is transmitted to the concrete over a certain distance from each
end of a member known as the transfer length. Post-tensioned concrete is made by casting
concrete that contains ducts through which tendons can be threaded. An alternative is to
cast the concrete around tendons that are greased or encased in a plastic sleeve. When the
concrete has sufficient strength the tendons are tensioned by means of portable jacks. The
load is transmitted to the concrete through permanent anchorages embedded in the
concrete at the ends of the tendons. Ducts are usually grouted later or filled with grease to
protect the tendons against corrosion. In some applications the post-tensioning tendons are
run alongside the concrete member. One advantage of post-tensioning is that it permits
using tendons that are curved or draped. (This can be achieved in pretensioning but not so
easily.) Post-tensioning can be done on the jobsite without any need of heavy temporary
anchorages. Anchorages are needed for each tendon, however, which is a significant cost
item.