Table of Contents
What are Structural Elements?
Structural elements are indivisible pieces that combine to form a larger structure. They are considered indivisible as they serve as the basic foundation for all structures, and there are no components or features that could be simplified further [1]. Structural elements are used to split a building or construct into multiple smaller pieces to make analysis easier. There are five primary structural elements: ties, struts, beams, columns, and diaphragms [2]. Structural elements can be combined to create much more complex structural systems, these systems can describe buildings, bridges, or any architectural construction.
Basic Structural Elements [2]
Properties of Various Beams
Beams come in various different cross sections based on the requirements in that scenario.
I-Beam
Beams are usually characterized and listed by their depth dimension. Many catalogues list the full properties of each individual beam including the moment of inertia, cross sectional area, and weight per unit length.
C-Channel
C-Channels are also characterized by their depth dimension.
Equal Angle Channel
Angle Channels are also characterized by their depth dimension.
Columns [7]
Many column may also take an I-Beam shape, and have similar properties. These properties can also be found on the Engineering Toolbox Page.
Overall, columns are generally design to have very good compressive strength, however they may be susceptible to buckling or even bending under high loading cases.
Classification
Columns are first categorized by the type of column. The 2 most common are steel and steel reinforced concrete, which can be seen in almost every modern day structure. Other, lesser used types of columns include stone columns and posts.
Secondly, columns are classified by shape. Generally steel columns take a similar shape to an I-beam, but reinforced concrete can take a variety of shapes. Common shapes include: square/rectangular, circular, and hexagonal/octagonal. Each shape may be tapered along the length,
Lastly, columns are sorted by their 'slenderness ratio', which is the length of the column compared to effective thickness of the column.
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