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AR10369: Structures 1A

[Page last updated: 04 August 2021]

Academic Year: 2021/2
Owning Department/School: Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering
Credits: 6 [equivalent to 12 CATS credits]
Notional Study Hours: 120
Level: Certificate (FHEQ level 4)
Period:
Semester 1
Assessment Summary: CW 25%, EX 75%
Assessment Detail:
  • Class Test (CW 10%)
  • Truss Design Coursework (CW 15%)
  • Examination (EX 75% - Qualifying Mark: 40)
Supplementary Assessment:
AR10369 Reassesment (where allowed by programme regulations)
Requisites:
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 successful completion of the unit, the student 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 principles in the context of a design problem. An ability to analyse statically determinate structures and to estimate 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. Stability concepts. Hanging chains and funicular shapes; simple suspension systems. Three pin arches and goal-post portal frames. The above topics concentrate on a broad overview of structural concepts and will be supported by laboratory demonstrations and tutorial classes emphasising the relation between structural and architectural concepts, structural safety and examples of structural failures.

Programme availability:

AR10369 is a Designated Essential Unit on the following programmes:

Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering
  • UEAR-AFB07 : BEng(Hons) Civil Engineering (Year 1)
  • UEAR-AKB07 : BEng(Hons) Civil Engineering with Year long work placement (Year 1)
  • UEAR-AFM03 : MEng(Hons) Civil and Architectural Engineering (Year 1)
  • UEAR-AKM03 : MEng(Hons) Civil and Architectural Engineering with Year long work placement (Year 1)
  • UEAR-AFM07 : MEng(Hons) Civil Engineering (Year 1)
  • UEAR-AKM07 : MEng(Hons) Civil Engineering with Year long work placement (Year 1)

Notes:

  • This unit catalogue is applicable for the 2021/22 academic year only. Students continuing their studies into 2022/23 and beyond should not assume that this unit will be available in future years in the format displayed here for 2021/22.
  • Programmes and units are subject to change in accordance with normal University procedures.
  • Availability of units will be subject to constraints such as staff availability, minimum and maximum group sizes, and timetabling factors as well as a student's ability to meet any pre-requisite rules.
  • Find out more about these and other important University terms and conditions here.