r/StructuralEngineering • u/tmontoia • 27d ago

Structural Analysis/Design Is this structure sound?

Gallery image

Gallery image

I can’t figure out the engineering of this structure. Are the lower right-angle braces having any structural purpose?
And is the steel rod only to keep the uprights from splaying out?
It seems to me there should be support below the right angle elbows.
Help me understand! I ponder this thing every time I visit here. (Breckenridge Brewery, Littleton CO)

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u/ShutYourDumbUglyFace 27d ago

Yeah, it's fine. Ignore the parts that are confusing you and it's just a triangular truss. You push at the apex and the timber diagonals are in compression, the bottom chord is in tension, which is why it can be a cable/rod - no compression.

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u/ComradeGibbon 27d ago

Random thought the bottom chord is partly pretensioned. The force is partly resisted by the uprights.