Structural Analysis (151A)

Instructor:
Name: Professor Mohammad Javad Abdolhosseini Qomi
Email: mjaq@uci.edu
Website: http://aimslab.eng.uci.edu/teaching/

Teaching and Grader Assistants:

Head TA: Grader:
Name: Ali Morshedifard Name: Sarah Balaian,
Email: morsheda@uci.edu Email:sbalaian@uci.edu

Time & Location:

Classes: Tue-Thu 8:00am-9:20 am , RH 101.
Head TA Review Sessions: Mon 2:00 pm-2:50 pm in PCB 1300.
Thu 1:00-1:50 pm in SSTR 101.
Thu 2:00-2:50 pm in SSTR 101.
Instructor office hours Tue/Fri 4:00-5:00 pm in EG 4th floor CEE Headquarther.
Head TA office hours: Thu 3:30-5:30 pm in AIRB1010.

Required Textbook:
Russell C. Hibbeler, Structural Analysis (9th Edition). 9th Edition, Prentice Hall, 2008,
ISBN-13 978-0136020608.

Taking Lecture Notes:

151A lectures are based on lecture notes developed by the instructor and are substantially
different from the required textbook. These notes are available on the class website under
151A section. You could also print lecture notes and work/modify them during the
lecture.

Attendance Policy:
We highly encourage you to attend all classes and not even miss one. As you will
gradually notice, there will be a significant difference between your lecture notes and the
reference textbook. To encourage you to attend classes, some of questions in quizzes and
the final exam will be the same as those solved in the class.

Feedback Policy:
In 151A, we are committed to provide you with the best teaching experience. To
achieve this goal, we need your feedback to monitor our performance and your learning
pace. In addition to online feedback, we welcome your constructive suggestions for
improving the quality of the class.

Laptop and Cellphone Policy:

While laptops and cellphones are indispensible parts of our daily lives, they can be
disruptive and distracting during a mathematically involved and theoretically challenging
learning session. Therefore, laptops are not allowed in our class environment unless
otherwise stated. Also, please have your cellphones silent and in your pockets during the
entire lecture.

Course Learning Objectives:

1- Recognize different structural systems and loads.
2- Determine stability and determinacy of various structural systems.
3- Apply methods of joints and sections to analyze statically determinate trusses.
4- Construct shear and moment diagrams of statically determinate beam systems.
5- Apply elastic beam theory, moment-area and conjugate-beam methods to
calculate the elastic deformation of different structural systems under loading.
6- Apply energy methods including principles of work and energy, virtual work and
Castigliano’s theorem to calculate the deflection in structural systems.
7- Calculate the influence line for beam-assemblage systems.
8- Demonstrate your structural analysis knowledge by designing/building/testing a
spaghetti bridge.
9- Use matrix methods and computer programs to analyze truss systems.

Lecture Topics:
Week 1:
Lecture 0 : Intro to class, spaghetti project, Type of structures and loads
Lecture 1 : determinacy and stability in beams + frames
Week 2:
Lecture 2 : Truss types, determinacy and stability in trusses and analysis methods
Lecture 3 : Shear and moment diagram in determined beams
Week 3:
Lecture 4 : Shear and moment diagram in frames regardless of their determinacy
Lecture 5 : Quiz 1, Shear/moment diagram, Elastic Beam Theory, Double Integration
Week 4:
Lecture 6 : Moment-area theorems and their application in beams and frames
Lecture 7 : Moment-area method for frames, Bress law and undetermined structures
Week 5:
Lecture 8 : Conjugate-beam method for determined and undetermined beams
Lecture 9 : external work and strain energy
Week 6:
Lecture 10: Quiz 2, Principle of virtual work and the unit load method (trusses)
Lecture 11: Application of the unit load method to 2D and 3D beams
Week 7:
Lecture 12: Minimum potential energy and the first Castigliano’s theorem (trusses)
Lecture 13: Application of the first Castigliano’s theorem to beams
Week 8:
Lecture 14: Application of the first Castigliano’s theorem to Frames
Lecture 15: Quiz 3, Influence line analysis
Week 9
Lecture 16: Influence line for determined beam systems and trusses
Lecture 17: Influence line for floor girders, moving load systems and internal loads
Week 10
Lecture 18: Matrix Analysis of truss structures
Lecture 19: Assembling global stiffness matrix and solving for unknowns

Spaghetti Bridge Contest: Week 9, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 9am-5pm in

SETH lab. We will send you details as we get close to the date.

Homework:
It is mandatory for you to form study groups to solve your weekly 151A’s homework.
Please form your groups ASAP during the first week of the classes and no group changes
are allowed during the quarter. You are highly encouraged to discuss within your group,
however, every single student MUST individually submit a homework solution in paper.
No electronic submission is allowed. The assignments are already uploaded on the class
website and will be due the following Monday 9:00 am in the class drop box in front of
CEE headquarter EG 4th floor. Late homework will not be graded.

Quizzes and the Final Exam:

There are three short quizzes and a final exam in this course. Scopes of these
exams are described as follows:
Quiz 1 covers stability, determinacy, truss analysis structures and shear/moment
diagrams.
Quiz 2 covers shear/moment diagrams and deflection calculations using elastic-beam
theory, moment-area and conjugate-beam methods.
Quiz 3 covers energy methods including principle of external work and energy,
virtual work principle, unit load method and Castigliano theorem.
Final exam covers the entire syllabus of the course covered in lectures 1 to 17.

These exams are all closed-book, closed-note and closed-discussion. The short
quizzes will be focused on problems solved in the class, homework, examples and
problem sets in the reference book. Therefore, there should be no surprises if you have
studied them all carefully. The Final Exam will feature new problems that you will not
find in conventional structural analysis textbooks but you will be able to solve them with
techniques you learned in this course.

Spaghetti Bridge Project:

You will demonstrate your knowledge of structural analysis in this class by designing,
constructing and testing a spaghetti bridge. The details of this class-wide competition are
going to be discussed in details in lectures 0.

Grading Policy:
Homework: 8 p-sets (10 points).
Quizzes: 3 short closed book Quizzes (30 points: 7+8+15).
Mandatory Spaghetti Bridge Project: see below (20 points).
Final Exam: Comprehensive closed book exam (40 points).
Total points: X out of 100
Objectives of Lecture 0: (Reading Assignment: pages 3-28, 35-68)

1- Introduction to the Class Structure and Expectations

2- Spaghetti bridge contest

Objectives of Lecture 1: (Reading Assignment: pages 3-28, 35-68)

1- Types of Structures (beams, trusses, Frame, Cable, Arch)

2- Types of loads (Dead Load, Live Load, Wind Load, Earthquake)
3- Define Conventions for Loads, Supports, Structural Members
4- Define Stability and Its Necessary Conditions
5- Stability and Determinacy of Beams and Beam Assemblages
6- Stability and Determinacy of Frames + Pinned Connections

Objectives of Lecture 2: (Reading Assignment: pages 46-68, 83-136)

1- Different types of trusses

2- Stability and Determinacy of trusses
3- The principle of superposition
4- Zero force members in trusses
5- Method of joints
6- Method of sections

Objectives of Lecture 3: (Reading Assignment: pages 139-160)

1- Shear and moment diagram in determined beams

2- Determination of the approximate shape deformation in beams

Objectives of Lecture 4: (Reading Assignment: pages 160-173)

1- Shear and moment diagram in determined frames

2- Superposition of shear and moment diagrams
3- Shear and moment diagram in indeterminate beams and Frames
4- Shear and moment diagram in beam with rotational springs (covered in Pset)

Objectives of Lectures 5: (Reading Assignment: pages 305-320)

1- Quiz on the contents of Lecture 1 through 4.

2- Review of elastic beam theory from mechanics of materials
3- Double integration method

Objectives of Lectures 6: (Reading Assignment: pages 320-330)

1- First and second moment-area theorems

2- Application of moment-area method in beams
Objectives of Lectures 7: (Reading Assignment: pages 320-330)

1- Application of moment-area method in frames

2- Bress law for calculation of deflections in beam assemblages and frames
3- Analysis of indetermined beams using moment-area method

Objectives of Lectures 8: (Reading Assignment: pages 330-338)

1- Conjugate-beam method
2- Conjugate-beam method for analysis of determined beams
3- Conjugate-beam method for analysis of undetermined beams

Objectives of Lecture 9: (Reading Assignment: pages 349-354)

1- External work, strain energy, conservation of energy

2- Conservation of energy applied to beams

Objectives of Lecture 10: (Reading Assignment: pages 354-363)

1- Quiz on the contents of Lecture 3 through 8.

2- Principle of virtual work
3- Unit load method for trusses (temperature and imperfections)
4- Application of unit load method for analysis of trusses

Objectives of Lecture 11: (Reading Assignment: pages 370-381)

1- Unit load method for beams (temperature and settlement)

2- Analysis of 2D beams and frames with unit load method
3- Analysis of 3D beams with unit load method

Objectives of Lecture 12: (Reading Assignment: pages 363-370)

1- Principle of minimum potential energy and the first Castigliano’s theorem

2- Castigliano’s theorem applied to indeterminate trusses

Objectives of Lecture 13: (Reading Assignment: pages 381-388)

1- Formulation of the first Castigliano’s theorem for beams and fames

2- Castigliano’s theorem applied to 2D beams and frames with nodal point loads

Objectives of Lecture 14: (Reading Assignment: pages 387-393)

1- Castigliano’s theorem applied to 3D beams and frames with nodal point loads
2- Castigliano’s theorem applied to 3D beams and frames with distributed loads
3- Symmetric structures + symmetric an anti-symmetric loading
 4- Decomposition of a general load to symmetric and anti-symmetric contributions
5- Applying ideas of parallel and series springs to analyze indeterminate structures

Objectives of Lecture 15: (Reading Assignment: pages 539-559)

1- Quiz on the contents of Lecture 9 through 14.

2- Influence line analysis for structures

Objectives of Lecture 16: (Reading Assignment: pages 205-2340)

1- Definition of the influence line and its application to beams

2- Qualitative influence line
3- Influence line for floor girders

Objectives of Lecture 17: (Reading Assignment: pages 230-255)

1- Application of Influence line for trusses

2- Maximum influence of a moving load system
3- Influence line of moment and shear in beams

Objectives of Lecture 18: (Reading Assignment: pages 539-559)

1- Computer simulation of trusses: nodes, Elements, Connectivity, support and loads

2- Stiffness matrix truss element in global coordinate system
3- Assembling stiffness matrix for a truss structure

Objectives of Lecture 19: (Reading Assignment: pages 539-559)

1- Static condensation and solving for nodal displacements and member forces
2- Analyzing a simple truss with the open source Matlab code