ON THE TEACHING RESOURCES OF INTERESTING “TRUSS”

Assembled by the rod system, the truss structures are easy to install and of good expansibility, thus they have been widely used in various engineering practices. As significant structures, the analyses of internal forces are usually involved in key courses such as theoretical mechanics, mechanics of materials, and structural mechanics. However, existing teaching contents mainly focus on “ideal truss”, “calculation of internal forces”, etc., which makes students lose interest and leads to improper teaching performance. Based on research and summary, the present authors collected plenty of interesting scientific topics on trusses, including name, design strategy, zero-force bar, and instability of truss structures. This knowledge is not only the expansion of book knowledge but also has a strong value of popular science. Suitable introduction and arrangement of these knowledge points will help the students and young teachers to have a deeper understanding truss structure.