How a Truss Works

Two Force Members:

A truss consists entirely of two force members. A two

force member is a member with exactly two forces acting
on it (one force on each end). These forces must have
equal magnitudes, opposite directions, and exist on
collinear planes (shown in figure 1). A two force member
is either in tension (both forces are acting away from the
member) or in compression (both forces are acting
towards the member). In figure 1, all members shown are
in tension. Figure 1:
http://adaptivemap.ma.psu.edu/websites/structure
Static Equilibrium: s/two_force_members/twoforcemembers.html

According to Newtonss Second Law, force equals mass times acceleration. When analyzing a
truss, it is assumed the truss isnt moving, and therefore the sum of all forces must equal zero.
This means, the total force acting to the left must be equal to the total force acting to the right,
and the total forces acting up must be equal to the total force acting down. When this is true
for an object, it is said that object is in static equilibrium. A truss is always considered to be in
static equilibrium, as well as each member within the truss.

Loads:

When analyzing a truss, the following

loads are taken into account: live loads
(movable objects such as people and
cars), dead loads (the weight of
materials and the truss itself) and
environmental loads (such as snow,
wind, and earthquakes).
Figure 2: https://www.britannica.com/technology/truss-building

Designing a Truss:

Any change in loads has a chain reaction throughout the truss, which changes all the internal
forces. Using only two force members and assuming static equilibrium allows engineers to
determine how any external load will effect each member.

Because one weak member breaking can destroy the whole truss, trusses are designed to
distrubute internal forces as evenly as possible, and therefore increase the maxium load the
truss can support.