Types of structures

They are simply made of clumpa compact mass material, filling the body completely.

They are made of low quality materials, but the structure is normally thicksynonym: fat, heavy.

They can be made by piling up materials into a shape or design.

Mass structures are solid structures which rely onput trust in with confidencetheir own weight to resist loads.

Natural mass Structures: Mountains and coral reefs.

Man made mass structures: Sand castles, damsa barrier constructed to contain the flow of water or to keep out the sea, pyramids, etc

It’s the most common choice of structures. They are composed of long elements joined to each other at the ends.

The term “triangulation” is used to describe the use of triangles, arranged together to form a frame. This is one of the most economical ways of building structures.

Advantages: they are easy to build, usually inexpensive and lightweight.

Disadvantages: they can not resist strong impacts and not recommended for very big loads.

Electric towers, some bridges (example: suspension bridges), cranes, buildings and scaffoldingclimbing frame in construction, are just a few examples.

They are made of a thin outer layer of material that surrounds a volume. We usually use assembled joined, fixed shaped panels to make the structure.

Natural Shell Structures: Eggs, shellfishmollusk, etc

Man made Shell structures: Tin cans, bottles, and usually food containers. Larger things such as car 🚗 and aeroplane bodies are examples of more complicated shell structures.

The romans invented the arch. There are many types, but the semicircular arch, which was the roman arch, still remains the most usee.

The arch has an advantage,  when the top piece, called the key stone, is in place the arch can stay in position on its own. This means that it is self-supporting and it requires no mortar or cement. Thanks to that effect the geometry of the arch displaces the forces to the sides and its own weight is the main load.

• Vaultsa series of arches, typical of churches are built by using a series of arches in a line (a barrel vault) or intersecting arches (a rib vault).

A suspended structure holds its elements by cables that are held from the top of a tall column.  Span is the space between one column and the next.

A suspended bridge is a type of suspended structure.  There are  several beams a long, thick piece of wood, metal, or concrete, especially used to support weightin a building or other structure: which  are hold by dozens of steel wires (cables). The cables only bear traction stress, but the advantage is that they can adapt their shape to different loads at different times and they are incredibly light.

This type of structure is very good for covering large distances ( large span ) but are very expensive.

Advantages: Good for covering a very large span.

Disadvantages: Expensive to build. 💸