
In case a refresher is needed on internal and external indeterminacy: external indeterminacy means you can't find the support reactions using only the equilibrium equations internal indeterminacy means you can't solve for the members' internal forces using only equilibrium equations.


I honestly don't remember how to use the force method, so I'd certainly use the displacement method. forces in a roof or bridge truss, than did the displacement method. This is why almost all structural analysis software uses the displacement method.įor structures which are only slightly externally indeterminate (by one or two degrees of freedom) and which aren't very complex (or which can be decomposed into simple sub-structures), the force method might be useful if you're doing things by hand.įor internally indeterminate structures. In Section 6 three practical structures are analyzed and the computational times are compared to those of a direct method. (4) Examples indicate that certain problems can be solved. Obviously, indeterminate structures will have more complicated solutions, but the basic working is all the same.

The displacement method is useful in that it is agnostic to such things, statically determinate and indeterminate structures are identical, as far as the method is concerned. A variational principle in terms of displacements in the fluid and the structure with a penalty for irrotationality of displacement in the fluid is. Depends on your definition of "better" and on the specific truss being analyzed. Clearly all the pushover methods tend to err rather heavily on the conservative side, particularly for the taller structures. Hence, the analysis must take into account, for example, that the connector elements that are in the sliding state before applying the live load will return to.
