Structural Analysis Tutor

What is structural analysis? 

Analyzing any structure is an essential job of an engineer, especially a civil engineer. Structural analysis is considered a very tough course, and finding an expert is challenging. To do well in this subject, one must have a thorough knowledge of statics, mechanics of materials, and essential calculus. 

Is structural analysis tough? Do I need private tutoring?

From a student’s perspective, the problems asked in the structural analysis are very lengthy. Although the concepts are not impossible to understand, the solutions demand a lot of focus and patience. If you are struggling, feel free to take help from experts, be it for your online/offline homework or live online quizzes. You can also hire a tutor for private tutoring sessions to learn this course. 

How can MEB help with Structural Analysis?

MEB has civil engineering tutors who provides  tutoring for structural analysis, and we guarantee top grades in the homework, projects, assignments, online quizzes, etc. Our tutoring and homework help fees are pretty affordable, even though our service is fantastic. We have handpicked highly qualified and experienced tutors to give you a great experience every time you deal with us. Getting help is simple, and one message on Whatsapp is enough to get all your problems solved. Our student helpline is quite prompt, and we deliver services quickly. 

We have provided online tutoring and homework help services for the past 15 years. So far, we have helped 10000+ students, and the satisfaction rate is above 97%. We get most of our clients through referrals and word of mouth. Our students are mainly from the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and Gulf countries like Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, etc.

Contact us on WhatsApp, and we will help you right away.

Structural analysis (From a layman’s perspective)

Depending on its usage, a structure gets subjected to various loads. Though some get subjected to only static loads and are simpler to analyze, others get subjected to dynamic loads, complicating the analysis. We call static loads “dead loads,” whereas dynamics loads “live loads.”

Loads can be concentrated or distributed. There can be various types of distributed loading, for example, uniformly distributed loads, Linearly increasing or decreasing, etc. 

The weight of the building itself is a type of dead load (usually) because the building materials are attached to the structure permanently. (We can find an exception in Burj Khalifa where a ball mechanism moves inside it in a way that balances this tall building from moving much.)

Examples of live loads are- moving traffic on a bridge, wind force, earthquake loads, hydrostatic or soil pressure, etc.

Failure to account for any possible load may lead to the collapse of the whole structure. Historical data on loading a structure and case studies on structure failures give structural analysts hints on dos and don’ts.

Structural Analysis Topics

In structural analysis, we start with the study of statically determinate structures, namely trusses, cables, arches, etc. Trusses can be simple, compound, complex, and coplanar or space (3D truss). 

The principle of superposition, equations of equilibrium, method of joints, method of sections, etc., are widely used in finding internal forces. Shear and moment diagram is a vital tool for visually calculating the internal stresses (shear stress, normal stress, bearing stress, to name a few). 

Failure to understand the shear force and bending moment diagram will render you incapable of learning the more advanced concepts used in deflection problems like the influence line method, conjugate beam method, moment area method, etc. These are based on visuals (diagrams) as well. 

There is a more mathematical tool like the double integration method to solve various problems. Still, the “feel” of problem-solving does not come without the visual tools mentioned before. 

Deflection problems can also be solved using energy methods. We use the principle of virtual work and Castigliano’s theorem to find deflections of trusses, beams, and frames. 

We extend the concepts learned so far to solve more complicated statically indeterminate structures. Solving these requires additional tools and strategies, namely force method analysis, Maxwell’s Theorem of Reciprocal Displacements, Betti’s Law, displacement method of analysis (slope deflection equations and moment distribution method). 

We also develop methods to analyze non-prismatic members using the moment distribution method and slope deflection equations.

We study a powerful method called the “stiffness method,” which uses stiffness matrix to do truss analysis, beam analysis, and plane frame analysis. Finally, we learn structural modeling and computer analysis to solve complex real-life structures that we can not solve practically using the pen and paper method. Computers make our job easier by multiple times.

(Topics credit: R.C Hibbeler Structural Analysis)