Structural Engineering & Statics
where the load goes
Concept

Working line — where it appears

The line along which a truss member's force is taken to act, drawn through the centroid of its section. Where the working lines at a joint do not meet at one point, the forces have a moment about the node that the members must share.

Named by 2 essays across one field — each of them below, with the objects they name alongside it.

The moment a joint makes out of geometry. Bending stress in the chord divided by the axial stress already in it, against how far the diagonal's working line misses the node. A truss analysed as pin-jointed is drawn with its members as lines through their own centroids meeting at a point, because that is what makes the joint a pin with nothing but forces in it. A fabricated joint is not obliged to oblige, and the resultant then has a moment about the node — 16 kNm at the 60 mm drawn. It divides between the members meeting there in proportion to their rotational stiffnesses, 4EI/L or 3EI/L, which is the moment-distribution rule applied to an unbalanced moment that came from geometry rather than from load. The chord takes 48 per cent of it and carries 25 per cent of its axial stress again in bending. Ten per cent arrives at 28 mm, which on a chord of any depth is a detailing decision rather than a mistake.

The joint that is not where it was drawn

A truss is drawn as lines through the centroids of its members meeting at points. A fabricated joint is under no obligation to oblige, and when the working lines miss each other the resultant has a moment about the node that has to go somewhere.

connections · Noding eccentricity A tubular K joint with a 12.6 mm gap. A 168.3 × 8.0 mm chord with two 114.3 × 6.3 mm braces at 45°, their toes 12.6 mm apart on the chord's crown. The braces' working lines, carried down through the chord, meet 3.0 mm below the chord's axis — an eccentricity of 0.02 chord diameters, inside the band of −93 to +42 mm in which the joint rules let its moment be neglected. Nobody chose that number. It follows from the gap, the brace diameter and the angle, and the gap was chosen so both toes could be welded. The working lines would meet on the chord's axis at a gap of 6.7 mm, which is a joint no rule permits.

The joint whose lines may not meet

In a welded tubular truss the noding eccentricity is not a fabrication error. It is fixed by the brace diameter, the brace angle and the gap between the toes, and the gap is chosen for the welder. For a third of ordinary proportions the one gap at which the working lines would meet lies in a band no fabrication rule permits — so the concurrent joint the truss was analysed with is the one joint that cannot be built.

connections · Noding eccentricity

Named alongside it

The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.

Beam-columnDetailingEccentricitySecondary momentAxial forceHollow sectionJoint stiffnessMoment distribution

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