Defining Structural Analysis
Structural analysis is the process of calculating and
determining the effects of loads and internal forces on a structure, building
or object. Structural Analysis is particularly important for structural
engineers to ensure they completely understand the load paths and the impacts
the loads have on their engineering design. It allows engineers or designers to
ensure a piece of equipment or structure is safe for use under the estimated
loads it is expected to withstand. Structural Analysis can either be performed
during design, testing or post-construction and will generally account for the
materials used, geometry of the structure and applied loads.
Structural Analysis usually looks at individual structural
elements, and the forces they undergo. A structural engineer will look at the
structural analysis results for beams, slabs, cables and walls. All of these
elements have forces applied to them, such as wind loads, dead loads (like self
weight) and live loads (like people or vehicles). So it is important for the
engineer to review how each of these elements behave under these loads. This is
the core focus of structural analysis.
What are the types of
Structural Analysis?
There are various methods used to perform structural
analysis, depending on the level of accuracy required by the engineer. We can
define structural analysis as being any of the following methods:
Hand Calculations: Simple
hand calculations are an extremely fast and easy way to evaluate the effects of
simple forces on simple structures. An example would be calculating the bending
moment forces on a horizontal beam. These backs of the envelope calculations
are standard practice in civil engineering, for those who do not wish to spend
long hours designing the structure - but rather wish to know the rough forces a
beam will undergo due to applied loads. Our structural engineering tutorials
have some fantastic tutorials on how to perform some simple structural analysis
using hand calculations.
Finite Element Analysis:
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is a complex numerical method used to solve
complicated problems which contain a number of variable inputs such as boundary
conditions, applied loads and support types. It is a far more complicated, yet
accurate method to run structural analysis compared to hand calculations. FEA
requires that the structure is broken up into smaller parts (or elements) which
can be evaluated individually for a more accurate estimate of the solution.
This can be an extremely difficult and time-consuming process to set up and
run. It is common that an FEA model will comprise of matrices thousands of
entries - making it pretty much impossible to be evaluated by human
calculations. If you want to learn more about this then explore our stiffness
method calculator to gain hands-on experience and a deeper understanding of how
this works. FEA is an extremely powerful and accurate method of structural
analysis and is the backbone of most Structural Analysis Software.
Structural Analysis Software: There are a great number of
Structural Analysis Software that can perform the accurate FEA calculations
without the difficulty of having to manually set up the complex process. SkyCiv
Structural 3D is one such software which allows users to evaluate the effects
of point loads, moments and distributed loads on a structure or design (SkyCiv
S3D Documentation). This method is hands down the optimal and most common
method to evaluate a structure with high precision and low calculation time.
Some drawbacks of standard software is that it can be inaccessible or
expensive. However, here at SkyCiv we aim to completely remove such
disadvantages by providing affordable structural analysis software on an online
platform - ready to be used by structural analysis engineer from any computer
at anytime!
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