Free Truss Anal sis Calculator y

Welcome to the truss analysis tool for quick and efficient truss calculations. Easily analyze
a wide range of common truss styles – including Pratt, Howe, and Scissor trusses – and
now, any custom truss. Whether you need to design a determinate or indeterminate truss,
we offer free versatility like no other with the powerful and accurate software behind
Efficalc. This tool is designed to both save you time and improve the reliability of your
designs.

How to anal yze and design your truss

Step 1: Geometry Input and Analysis: Begin by setting your truss geometry with our
user-friendly interface for the common truss shapes or your own custom design.
Once set up, click on "Calculate Forces" for instant and accurate analysis of member
demands and node displacements.

Step 2: : After the analysis is complete, you get free access to

Detailed Calculations

view and print a detailed calculation report for your truss. These comprehensive
reports serve as a valuable resource for design review and provide professional
documentation of your truss analysis.

Step 3: : Sharing and saving your design has never been easier! By
Save and Share

simply copying the URL with your design, you can efficiently collaborate with others
or keep a record of your work, ensuring easy access and communication.

Step 4: Design Members and Connections: For member and connection design, visit
efficalc.com. This innovative platform immediately turns your equations into an
optimized design interface and submittal-ready calculation report.

We value your feedback and are always looking for ways to enhance our tools. Reach out
to us at encompapp.com anytime!

Choose Truss St yle: BRIDGE ROOF CUSTOM

Pratt Bridge Howe Bridge Warren Bridge

Node Labels: Member Labels: Force Arrows:

US/IMPERIAL METRIC

Truss Span Truss Height

Number of Web Bays (per side):
m m 2
6 2.5

Truss Loading

Cross-sectional Properties of Members (Optional)

CALCULATE FORCES

PRINT CALCULATION REPORT

SHOW CALCULATIONS

Member Forces (-Tension/+Compression)

Member ID Start -> End Node Length (m) Axial Force (kN)

0 0→1 2.693 105

1 1→3 2 66

2 3→5 2 56

3 5→6 2.693 131.9

4 0→2 2 -69

5 2→4 2 -103

6 4→6 2 -49
 Member ID Start -> End Node Length (m) Axial Force (kN)

7 1→2 2.693 -72.7

8 2→3 2.693 18.85

9 3→4 2.693 45.77

10 4→5 2.693 -99.63

Truss Anal sis Calculations y

Powered b y Encomp

1. Truss Geometr y

The overall configuration of the 2-dimensional truss is shown in Figure 1. The specific node
and member configurations are also summarized in Table 1 and Table 2 below.

The total span of the truss is 6 m and overall height of the truss is 2.5 m.

Figure 1: Truss global configuration

Node ID X-Position (m) Y-Position (m) x y (if not free)

Fi it

0 0 0 pin

1 1 2.5 --

2 2 0 --

3 3 2.5 --

4 4 0 --

5 5 2.5 --

6 6 0 roller

Table 1: Structure node geometry

Member ID Start -> End Node Length (m)

0 0→1 2.693
 Member ID Start -> End Node Length (m)

1 1→3 2

2 3→5 2

3 5→6 2.693

4 0→2 2

5 2→4 2

6 4→6 2

7 1→2 2.693

8 2→3 2.693

9 3→4 2.693

10 4→5 2.693

Table 2: Structure member geometry

2. Applied Loading to Nodes

The loads applied to this truss structure are represented in Figure 2 and summarized in
detail below in Table 3. Note that if a node is omitted from Table 3, no loads have been
applied to it.

Figure 2: Graphical representation of loads applied to the structure (arrow length not to scale)

Node ID F x (kN) F y (kN)

0 -80 0

1 0 -30

2 0 -50

3 0 -60

4 0 -50

5 30 -30

Table 3: Applied loading to nodes

3. y
Truss Anal sis Using the Direct Stiffness Method

With the truss geometry and loading defined above, the member forces and deflections are
calculated using the direct stiffness method. It is assumed that all members behave
elastically and have sufficient strength at connections to transfer the required load to the
member.

3.1 Member Stiffness Matri x

First, each member stiffness matrix is composed in the global coordinate system. For truss
analysis, it is assumed that both ends of the member are rotationally unconstrained so that
each member will only be loaded axially. The member stiffness matrix in the global
coordinate system will be a 4x4 matrix for a 2-dimensional truss. Each member will be
defined as follows:

Member starting node

Member ending node

Member rotation angle from horizontal

Member direction
Figure 3: General member geometry definition

Having member properties:

L Member length
A Member cross-sectional area
E Member material modulus of elasticity

For member axial demand analysis of a determinate truss, A and E may be set equal to any
constant for all members. In this analaysis, A has been set to 5 mm 2 and E has been set to
29000 MPa.

For simplicity in this general example, the following constants are calculated:

c=cosθ
s=sinθ
And a stiffness matrix is assembled for each member using the following equation:

c2 cs -c 2 -cs
cs s 2 -cs -s 2
k i = AE
L -c 2 -cs c 2 cs
-cs -s 2 cs s2

For example, the stiffness matrix for member 0 is:

0.138 0.345 -0.138 -0.345

2 0.345 0.862 -0.345 -0.862
k 0 = 5 mm * 29000 MPa
2.69m -0.138 -0.345 0.138 0.345
-0.345 -0.862 0.345 0.862

3.2 Global Structure Stiffness Matri x

All of the member stiffness matrices will be combined to form the global structure stiffness
matrix, K, by grouping each nodal degree of freedom and summing the attached member
stiffness matrix elements. For this 2-dimensional truss with 7 nodes, the global stiffness
matrix will be 14x14.

This operation yields the following structural stiffness matrix for the above defined truss:

79.9 18.6 -7.43 -18.6 -72.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

18.6 46.4 -18.6 -46.4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
-7.43 -18.6 87.4 0 -7.43 18.6 -72.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
-18.6 -46.4 0 92.8 18.6 -46.4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
-72.5 0 -7.43 18.6 160 0 -7.43 -18.6 -72.5 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 18.6 -46.4 0 92.8 -18.6 -46.4 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 -72.5 0 -7.43 -18.6 160 0 -7.43 18.6 -72.5 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 -18.6 -46.4 0 92.8 18.6 -46.4 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 -72.5 0 -7.43 18.6 160 0 -7.43 -18.6 -72.5 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 18.6 -46.4 0 92.8 -18.6 -46.4 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 -72.5 0 -7.43 -18.6 87.4 0 -7.43 18.6
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -18.6 -46.4 0 92.8 18.6 -46.4
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -72.5 0 -7.43 18.6 79.9 -18.6
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 18.6 -46.4 -18.6 46.4

Structure Stiffness Matrix, K

3.3 Reduced Structure Stiffness Matri x

With the reactions at the structure supports being unknown, the structure stiffness matrix is
reduced by removing the rows and columns which correspond to the node support
directions, resulting in the reduced structure stiffness matrix, KR :
 87.4 0 -7.43 18.6 -72.5 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 92.8 18.6 -46.4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
-7.43 18.6 160 0 -7.43 -18.6 -72.5 0 0 0 0
18.6 -46.4 0 92.8 -18.6 -46.4 0 0 0 0 0
-72.5 0 -7.43 -18.6 160 0 -7.43 18.6 -72.5 0 0
0 0 -18.6 -46.4 0 92.8 18.6 -46.4 0 0 0
0 0 -72.5 0 -7.43 18.6 160 0 -7.43 -18.6 -72.5
0 0 0 0 18.6 -46.4 0 92.8 -18.6 -46.4 0
0 0 0 0 -72.5 0 -7.43 -18.6 87.4 0 -7.43
0 0 0 0 0 0 -18.6 -46.4 0 92.8 18.6
0 0 0 0 0 0 -72.5 0 -7.43 18.6 79.9

Reduced Structure Stiffness Matrix

3.4 Reduced structure force matri x

Given the loads applied to the structure, as described in Table 3, the global force matrix, Q,
is assembled to match the dimensional size of the reduced structure stiffness matrix. Each
node degree of freedom for the structure will match between the structure force and
structure stiffness matrices. Since the reactions at the constrained nodes are unknown until
the analysis is completed, the node support direction forces are removed from the global
structure force matrix to create the reduced structure load matrix, QR :

0 -30 0 -50 0 -60 0 -50 30 -30 0

Structural Load Matrix (reduced)

3.5 y
Anal sis for global displacements

The unknown nodal displacements are calculated by inverting the reduced stiffness matrix
and multiplying it with the reduced structure force matrix: KR-1 · QR

Then, the known support displacements of 0 are added to compose the global stiffness
matrix, D.

**If member cross-sectional areas and material properties are not representative of the
real-life truss elements, each node displacement is only of value in comparison to each of
the others. These relative displacements are used to calculate the internal member forces in
the determinate truss but will not necessarily be representative of the actual displacements
of the truss.

The resulting displacement at each node along with known support displacements are
given below:

Node ID Δx (m) Δy (m)

0 0 0

1 3.15 -3.36