Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Graphical Method
Graphical Method
1996
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Fig. 2
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roof slab
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Fig. 1
1996
Fig. 1
inward-curving co~umn
einw2rts gekrurnrnte Srurze
eave beam
stiffening flange
versreilender Flansch
Fig. 4
1996
1996
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Fig. 5
visualized make it easy to understand the logic of the wellknown profile of the bridge, especially if one takes the time
to examine the cross-sections of the box arch and find the
limits of their kerns in relation to the locations of the lines of
pressure. Drawings viewed by the author in the Maillart
Archive at the ETH in Zurich show that Maillart designed the
Fig. 8
1996
1996
a particularly rich example of how simple graphical explorations can help us and our students to unlock the secrets of
many famous structures and their designers.
As a byproduct of even greater value, these graphical
methods can furnish students with powerful synthetical tools
for designing their own longspan structures, for they are
suited perfectly to studio work. The author has provided
students with these techniques in both classroom and design
studio for nearly twenty years. Samples of student work were
shown during the presentation of this paper, but space is too
limited in this publication to include these projects.
Students find graphical techniques for structural design
fascinating and easy to learn. Starting from scratch, it takes
no more than an hour of class time and one homework
exercise for students to learn the graphical analysis of
trusses. Another class period suffices to extend the technique
to suspended and arched structures, after which students
have at their command the fundamental means by whlch the
many of the great structures of the last 150 years were given
form. Other teachers may find graphical methods useful both
as design tools for student use, and, as illustrated here, as a
means for analyzing and understanding famous structures.'
NOTES
' For a brief history of graphic statics, see Hans Straub, A History
of Civil Engineering, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1964, pp.
197-202.
For a more extended description of graphical methods for truss
analysis, see James Ambrose, Design ofBuilding Trusses, New
York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1994, pp. 33 1-377. These pages
largely duplicate verbatim the excellent treatment of the subject by the late Hany Parker.
Koechlin's use of graphic statics in the design of the Eiffel
Tower is documented in a book, La Tour de Trois Cent Metres,
that was published by the Eiffel office through Imprimerie
Mercier in 1900.
For a more detailed and extended presentation of graphical
derivations of ideal truss forms, see Edward Allen, "Finding
Efficient Forms for Trusses," in Ambrose, op. cit., pp. 378-395.
A funicular curve for any set of loads may be constructed
through any three points by utilizing a graphical construction
shown in Paul Andersen and Gene M. Nordby, Introduction to
Structural Mechanics, The Ronald Press Co., New York, 1960,
pp. 61,62. Another source of this method is William S. Wolfe,
GraphicalAnalysis,New York, McGraw-Hill, 192 1, pp. 37-39.
Gerhard Rosenberg, "The Functional Aspect of the Gothic
Style," Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 18
January 1936, pp. 273-290.
The best general references on graphic statics are Wolfe,
Andersen and Nordby, and AmbroselParkerlAllen, refs. 2 and
5 above.