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Annie Sullivan Middle School > Unified Arts > Technology and Engineering > Grade 8

Structural Forces Vocabulary

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 Structural Forces Vocabulary

 Structural Forces
A force is a push or pull that transfers energy to an object.  Structural materials are subjected to both internal and external forces and must be considered by engineers as they design safe and lasting structures.

Internal Forces
Internal forces are those that act within structural materials.  They are forces exerted by one part of a structure onto another.  The source or cause of internal forces may be either internal or external.  Examples of internal forces are tension, compression, torsion, bending, and shear.

Tension
Tension is a force that pulls or stretches.

Tensile Strength
The ability of a material to withstand tension without parting is called tensile strength.

Compression
A force that pushes or squeezes is called compression.  A structural material in compression may be shortened or crushed.

Bending
When a straight member becomes curved, one side is in tension while the other is in compression.  Engineers must either prevent bending, or select materials that can perform well in both tension and compression.

Shear
Shear is a force that causes parts of a material to slide past one another in opposite directions, usually in a parallel manner.  Shear may also be described as a sliding force.

External Forces (Load)
A load is an external force on a structure.  It may be caused by physical weight on a structure, or by environmental sources such as wind, water, or temperature.

Dead Load
Dead load is the weight of the structure itself.  The weight of all the materials used to build the structure may be included in the dead load.  A structure must be able to support its own structural materials.

Live Load
Loads that change or move are called live loads.  Cars on a bridge, snow on a roof, girls in a tree fort, and eggs in a bird's nest are all examples of live load.  Live loads contribute additional weight to a structure during or after construction.

Structural Member
Each individual part of a structure is called a member.  The attachment point of two or more members is called the joint.  Horizontal members are called beams, and are built to withstand bending.  Vertical members are called columns, and must withstand compression.




9937  
Updated: September 5, 2010  



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