Dynamic Analysis of Trusses

Abstract

The static analysis of trusses whose members are pin-connected reduces to the problem of determining the bar forces due to a set of loads applied at the joints. When the same trusses are subjected to the action of dynamics forces, the simple situation of only axial stresses in the members is no longer present. The inertial forces developed along the members of the truss will, in general, produce flexural bending in addition to axial forces. The bending moments at the ends of the truss members will still remain zero in the absence of external joint moments. The dynamic stiffness method for the analysis of trusses is developed as in the case of framed structures by establishing the basic relations between external forces, elastic forces, damping forces, inertial forces and the resulting displacements, velocities, and accelerations at the nodal coordinates, that is, by determining the stiffness, damping, and mass matrices for a member of the truss. The assemblage of system stiffness, damping, and mass matrices of the truss as well as the solution for the displacements at the nodal coordinates follows along the standard method presented in the preceding chapters for framed structures.