Defining Structural Analysis

Structural analysis is the process of calculating and determining the

effects of loads and internal forces on a structure, building or object.
Structural Analysis is particularly important for structural engineers
to ensure they completely understand the load paths and the
impacts the loads have on their engineering design. It allows
engineers or designers to ensure a piece of equipment or structure
is safe for use under the estimated loads it is expected to withstand.
Structural Analysis can either be performed during design, testing
or post-construction and will generally account for the materials
used, geometry of the structure and applied loads.

Structural Analysis usually looks at individual structural elements,

and the forces they undergo. A structural engineer will look at the
structural analysis results for beams, slabs, cables and walls. All of
these elements have forces applied to them, such as wind loads,
dead loads (like self weight) and live loads (like people or vehicles).
So it is important for the engineer to review how each of these
elements behave under these loads. This is the core focus of
structural analysis.

What are the types of Structural

Analysis?
There are various methods used to perform structural analysis,
depending on the level of accuracy required by the engineer. We
can define structural analysis as being any of the following
methods:
1. Hand Calculations

Hand Calculations in Structural Analysis

Simple hand calculations are an extremely fast and easy way to

evaluate the effects of simple forces on simple structures. An
example would be calculating the bending moment forces on a
horizontal beam. These back of the envelope calculations are
standard practice in civil engineering, for those who do not wish to
spend long hours designing the structure - but rather wish to know
the rough forces a beam will undergo due to applied loads. Our
structural engineering tutorials have some fantastic tutorials on how
to perform some simple structural analysis using hand calculations.

2. Finite Element Analysis

Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is a complex numerical method used

to solve complicated problems which contain a number of variable
inputs such as boundary conditions, applied loads and support
types. It is a far more complicated, yet accurate method to run
structural analysis compared to hand calculations. FEA requires
that the structure is broken up into smaller parts (or elements)
which can be evaluated individually for a more accurate estimate of
the solution. This can be an extremely difficult and time consuming
process to set up and run. It is common that an FEA model will
comprise of matrices thousands of entries - making it pretty much
impossible to be evaluated by human calculations. In saying this -
FEA is an extremely powerful and accurate method of structural
analysis and is the backbone of most Structural Analysis Software.

3. Structural Analysis Software

There are a great number of Structural Analysis Software that can
perform the accurate FEA calculations without the difficulty of
having to manually set up the complex process. SkyCiv Structural
3D is one such software which allows users to evaluate the effects
of point loads, moments and distributed loads on a structure or
design (SkyCiv S3D Documentation). This method is hands down
the optimal and most common method to evaluate a structure with
high precision and low calculation time. Some drawbacks of
standard software is that it can be inaccessible or expensive.
However, here at SkyCiv we aim to completely remove such
disadvantages by providing affordable structural analysis software
on an online platform - ready to be used by structural analysis
engineer from any computer at anytime!