OpenSees can solve every reasonable problem from any structural analysis textbook. But I nearly had a meltdown over a simple truss problem because truss elements in OpenSees do not directly support thermal loading. Consider Example 6.17, shown below, from J.C. Smith’s Structural Analysis. All members of the truss have E=29000 ksi, A=10 inch2, and α=6.5e-6 (coefficient of thermal expansion, … Continue reading More Than One Way to Heat Up a Truss →