ABSTRACT
A structure may be considered to be an assembly of elements and these elements can be one, two or three dimensional. Depending on whether the loading is lateral or axial, each element has a particular type of structural behavior. The behaviour of a simple spanning beam can be characterized by drawing the bending moment and shear forces diagrams. To conceive structures, the structural designer must be able to understand the consequences of structural geometry and structural assembly. The trusses have axial forces in the individual members of the truss, but a beam has bending moments and shear forces. In the truss, the variation in the overall bending moment either side of the slice was catered for by the variation in the lever arm. There is another type of structural behaviour which is not beam like, truss like or frame like but funicular. Beam like, truss like, frame and funicular structures can be two-dimensional or three-dimensional.
