THE historical development of methods of analysis, for use in the design of continuous frames, is traced from the introduction of the theorem of three moments, almost a hundred years ago, to the contemporary application of electronic digital computers. The types of frame under consideration range from the highly redundant skeleton of a city building to the highly deformable structure of a large span single storey building or hangar. The analysis is restricted by the conventions of practical structural engineering design, namely that axial deformations of frame members may be discounted, and that columns are not so slender as to raise problems of elastic instability. The principal methods-moment-area, slope-deflection, strain-energy, moment-distribution, relaxation, etc.-are briefly summarised, and a case is presented for the need of more than one method to meet different design requirements.
E.H. Bateman