Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering, Unit Catalogue 2008/09 |
AR10079 Structures 1 |
| Credits: 6 |
| Level: Certificate |
| Semester: 1 |
| Assessment: CW 50%, EX 50% |
| Requisites: |
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Aims: To make students aware of the role played by structure in the design and building process. To introduce the concepts of statics and load carrying mechanisms, sufficient for an elementary appraisal of structures. To familiarise students with different types of structural materials and assemblies.
Learning Outcomes: On completion of this unit students will be able to design a simple structure and identify and calculate the forces within it. Skills: An understanding of Statics and an ability to apply the principals in the context of a design problem. Ability to work in groups on design projects and to present the work verbally and through graphics and modelling. An ability to analyse staticallydeterminate structures and to estimeate appropriate member sizes for permissible stress states. Content: Stable structures and structural mechanisms. Newton's laws; static equilibrium and free body diagrams. The concepts of forces and moments in structural members. Equilibrium of loads, forces and moments in simple structures. Introduction to load carrying action of trusses, beams, arches, cables and columns. The concepts of stress, section sizes and shapes. Pin-jointed trusses: triangles of forces, resolving at joints and method of sections; physical behaviour and structural form and efficiency. Direct stresses and strains; Young's Modulus. Beams and free body diagrams, bending moments and shear forces. Bending stresses in beams, section shape and structural efficiency; web action and the concept of shear stresses. Overall efficiency of beams and simple bridges. Combined bending and axial loading in short columns; the middle third; slender columns and stability concepts. Hanging chains and funicular shapes; simple suspension systems. Voussoir arches. Three pin arches and portal frames.The above topics concentrate on a broad overview of structural concepts and will be supportedby laboratory demonstrations, tutorial classes and project work emphasising the relation between structural and architectural concepts, structural safety and examples of structural failures. NOTE: Students must achieve a minimum pass mark of 40% in the examination and a 40% pass mark overall for the unit. |