| THEORY & FORMULAE |
A truss is a skeletal framework usually comprised of straight small beams joined together as a series of triangles. The joints (nodes) are assumed to be hinges, and any load applied are assumed to act only at the joints. The individual members of a simple truss are only subject to tension and compression forces and no bending forces.
Trusses can support a large amount of weight and span great distances. Knowing the force acting on a particular member is a pre-requisite in determining whether or not the member will fail.
The theory applied here is the Method of Joints for a 2-dimensional pin-jointed truss. This method consists of writing equilibrium equations in the horizontal and vertical directions for each joint, with the forces in the members as unknown. Neglecting the weight of the members, the forces at the two end of a member must be equal.
This results in a system of linear equations, which can be restructured as matrices. An N-member truss will have a 2Nx2N coefficient matrix, and 2N load vector. The calculator computes the member forces along with the reaction forces acting on the supports, via Matrix Inversion techniques.
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