Static analysis of rigid-jointed frames

Abstract

The static analysis of rigid-jointed frames and continuous beams is one of the most important aspects of structural engineering. Rigid-jointed frames take many and varied forms and appear in many different branches of engineering, varying from ships to aircraft and motor cars to offshore drilling rigs. Prior to the development of matrix methods in structural analysis, analytical methods were used but, in general, these could only be applied to the simplest of structures. Even with two-dimensional rigid-jointed frames, the analysis became very tedious, particularly with sidesway problems in skew frames. However, today, with the vast army of available computers, these problems have become more of historic interest than of analytical challenge. Even with only a microcomputer, the static analysis of continuous beams and rigid-jointed plane frames can be carried out quite successfully.