TRUSSES AND TYPES

In engineering truss is  member which takes transverse loads falling on them, in general a truss is a structure that "is made up of of two-force members , where the members are organized so that the assemblage as a whole behaves as a single member". A "two-force member" is a structural component where force is applied to only two points. Although this meticulous definition allows the members to have any shape connected in any stable configuration, trusses typically consists of the combination of five or more triangular units constructed with straight members whose ends are connected at joints termed to as nodes. In this typical context, external forces and reactions to those forces are contemplate to act only at t nodes results in forces in the members which are either tensile or compressive. For straight members, moments (torques) are precise excluded because, and only because, all the joints in a truss are treated as revolutes, as is necessary for the links to be two-force members.

A planar truss is one where all the members and nodes lie within a two dimensional plane, while a space truss has members and nodes extending into three dimensions. The top beams in a truss are  top chords and are typically in compression, the bottom beams are called bottom chords and are in tension, the interior beams are termed as webs, and the areas inside the webs are called panels.