Mechanical structures

An Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner

The design of static structures assumes they always have the same geometry (in fact, so-called static structures can move significantly, and structural engineering design must take this into account where necessary), but the design of moveable or moving structures must account for fatigue, variation in the method in which load is resisted and significant deflections of structures.

The forces which parts of a machine are subjected to can vary significantly, and can do so at a great rate. The forces which a boat or aircraft are subjected to vary enormously and will do so thousands of times over the structure's lifetime. The structural design must ensure that such structures are able to endure such loading for their entire design life without failing.

These works can require mechanical structural engineering:

Airframes and fuselages

Boilers and pressure vessels

Coachworks and carriages

Cranes

Elevators

Escalators

Marine vessels and hulls

Structural elements

A statically determinate simply supported beam, bending under an evenly distributed load.

Any structure is essentially made up of only a small number of different types of elements:

Columns

Beams

Plates

Arches

Shells

Catenaries

Many of these elements can be classified according to form (straight, plane / curve) and dimensionality (one-dimensional / two-dimensional):