How Structures Work
Design and Behaviour from Bridges to Buildings
3rd Edition
Published on 9. October 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-1-394-34013-2 (ISBN)
Description
HOW STRUCTURES WORK
DESIGN AND BEHAVIOUR FROM BRIDGES TO BUILDINGS, THIRD EDITION
DAVID YEOMANS
Structural engineering is essential to the design of a building. How the building behaves when subjected to various forces - the weight of the materials used to build it, the weight of the occupants or the traffic it carries, the force of the wind, etc. - is fundamental to its stability. The alliance between architecture and structural engineering is therefore critical to the successful design and completion of the buildings and infrastructure that surrounds us. Yet structure is often cloaked in mathematics which many architects and surveyors find difficult to understand.
How Structures Work has been written to explain the bahaviour of structures in a clear way without resorting to complex mathematics. It is aimed at all who require a good qualitative understanding of structures, their behaviour, and design, and as such will be of benefit to students of architecture, architectural history, building surveying and civil engineering. The straightforward, nonmathematical approach ensures it will also be suitable for a wider audience including building administrators and the interested layman. This new edition includes a new chapter to deal with some little understood structures both ancient and modern.
Reviews of the first edition
"How Structures work is the most compelling on structures that I have ever read. And I have read a lot of books on structures."
-R.L.Brungraber, Ph.D., P.E Timber Framing: Journal of the Timber Framers Guild, December 2009
"The author writes beautifully. It is a user-friendly engaging book to read and one that is very easy to understand. One learns a lot by reading it ... I think it should be a compulsory text for all first year engineering students."
From a review of the first edition commissioned by the publisher.
DESIGN AND BEHAVIOUR FROM BRIDGES TO BUILDINGS, THIRD EDITION
DAVID YEOMANS
Structural engineering is essential to the design of a building. How the building behaves when subjected to various forces - the weight of the materials used to build it, the weight of the occupants or the traffic it carries, the force of the wind, etc. - is fundamental to its stability. The alliance between architecture and structural engineering is therefore critical to the successful design and completion of the buildings and infrastructure that surrounds us. Yet structure is often cloaked in mathematics which many architects and surveyors find difficult to understand.
How Structures Work has been written to explain the bahaviour of structures in a clear way without resorting to complex mathematics. It is aimed at all who require a good qualitative understanding of structures, their behaviour, and design, and as such will be of benefit to students of architecture, architectural history, building surveying and civil engineering. The straightforward, nonmathematical approach ensures it will also be suitable for a wider audience including building administrators and the interested layman. This new edition includes a new chapter to deal with some little understood structures both ancient and modern.
Reviews of the first edition
"How Structures work is the most compelling on structures that I have ever read. And I have read a lot of books on structures."
-R.L.Brungraber, Ph.D., P.E Timber Framing: Journal of the Timber Framers Guild, December 2009
"The author writes beautifully. It is a user-friendly engaging book to read and one that is very easy to understand. One learns a lot by reading it ... I think it should be a compulsory text for all first year engineering students."
From a review of the first edition commissioned by the publisher.
More details
Edition
3rd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
John Wiley & Sons Inc
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 170 mm
Width: 244 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
578 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-394-34013-2 (9781394340132)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
09/2025
3rd Edition
Wiley-ISTE
€51.99
Available for download
E-Book
08/2025
3rd Edition
Wiley-ISTE
€51.99
Available for download
Previous edition
Book
01/2016
2nd Edition
Wiley
€48.90
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
About this author
David Yeomans is an engineer, an historian and a teacher. He has taught in several schools of architecture in the United Kingdom and the United States, has been a consultant on World Heritage Sites and has written widely on the history of building structures. He is vice chairman of the Construction History Society.
David Yeomans is an engineer, an historian and a teacher. He has taught in several schools of architecture in the United Kingdom and the United States, has been a consultant on World Heritage Sites and has written widely on the history of building structures. He is vice chairman of the Construction History Society.
Content
Preface from the First Edition x
Preface to the Third Edition xvi
1 Brackets and Bridges 1
Cooper's tragedy 2
The Forth Bridge 4
Members in compression 6
The Quebec Bridge 8
Forces in a bracket 9
The design process 13
Stresses 14
2 Stiffening a Beam - Girder Bridges 16
The simple truss 22
Tension trusses 27
Girder bridges: The Forth Bridge 31
3 Arches and Suspension Bridges 33
Building an arch 35
Blackfriars Bridge 37
Pontypridd Bridge 39
The forces in an arch 39
Practical issues 41
Forces within the arch ring 43
Edwards's failure 48
An unexpected failure 49
Arch with point load 50
Iron and concrete arches 51
The suspension bridge 54
Arches in buildings: Flying buttresses 57
Arches in walls 60
4 Bringing the Loads to the Ground - The Structural Scheme 63
Introduction 63
The alternatives 64
Nature of the loads 66
Choices 68
'Flow of forces' or action and reaction 71
Describing the structure 73
Structures are three-dimensional 75
Statically indeterminate structures 76
5 Safe as Houses? - Walls 79
Bricks and mortar 81
Point loads and openings 85
Cavity walls 88
Thick walls 90
Foundation loads 93
Horizontal loads 94
Rafter thrusts 98
Foundation stresses 101
6 Frames - A Problem of Stability 103
Timber framing 104
Construction of a barn 108
Bracing forces 111
Bending in the post 112
Light frame construction 113
The coming of iron 115
The frame today 122
The multistorey frame 126
Columns 130
7 Floors and Beams - Deflections and Bending Moments 134
The need for science 140
Floors and deflections 140
The forces in the beam 142
Strain 143
Galileo's cantilever 145
Finding the stresses 147
From cantilever to beam 148
Iron and steel beams 150
Cast iron 150
Reinforced concrete beams 153
Continuous beams 155
Shear 159
Two-way floors 160
Other structures in bending 163
Prestressing 168
8 Providing Shelter - Roofs 173
Common rafter roofs 174
Purlin roofs 179
Longitudinal stability 185
The roof truss 188
The coming of iron 190
Three-dimensional roofs 192
9 Structures in a Three-Dimensional World 198
Vaults 198
The pointed vault 202
Elaborations on the basic vault form 203
Building vaults 206
Domes 207
Some historical examples 212
The modern three-dimensional structure 216
Anticlastic forms 220
Structures in tension 222
Structures for their time and place 224
10 Materials and Workmanship 226
Walling materials 227
Timber 228
Iron and steel 229
Compatibility of materials 233
Material development and design 234
11 Additional Thoughts 235
Friction 235
Tension structures 238
The 'cantilever' stair 243
Modelling 247
Appendix: Some Elements of Grammar 251
Glossary 257
Index 267
Preface to the Third Edition xvi
1 Brackets and Bridges 1
Cooper's tragedy 2
The Forth Bridge 4
Members in compression 6
The Quebec Bridge 8
Forces in a bracket 9
The design process 13
Stresses 14
2 Stiffening a Beam - Girder Bridges 16
The simple truss 22
Tension trusses 27
Girder bridges: The Forth Bridge 31
3 Arches and Suspension Bridges 33
Building an arch 35
Blackfriars Bridge 37
Pontypridd Bridge 39
The forces in an arch 39
Practical issues 41
Forces within the arch ring 43
Edwards's failure 48
An unexpected failure 49
Arch with point load 50
Iron and concrete arches 51
The suspension bridge 54
Arches in buildings: Flying buttresses 57
Arches in walls 60
4 Bringing the Loads to the Ground - The Structural Scheme 63
Introduction 63
The alternatives 64
Nature of the loads 66
Choices 68
'Flow of forces' or action and reaction 71
Describing the structure 73
Structures are three-dimensional 75
Statically indeterminate structures 76
5 Safe as Houses? - Walls 79
Bricks and mortar 81
Point loads and openings 85
Cavity walls 88
Thick walls 90
Foundation loads 93
Horizontal loads 94
Rafter thrusts 98
Foundation stresses 101
6 Frames - A Problem of Stability 103
Timber framing 104
Construction of a barn 108
Bracing forces 111
Bending in the post 112
Light frame construction 113
The coming of iron 115
The frame today 122
The multistorey frame 126
Columns 130
7 Floors and Beams - Deflections and Bending Moments 134
The need for science 140
Floors and deflections 140
The forces in the beam 142
Strain 143
Galileo's cantilever 145
Finding the stresses 147
From cantilever to beam 148
Iron and steel beams 150
Cast iron 150
Reinforced concrete beams 153
Continuous beams 155
Shear 159
Two-way floors 160
Other structures in bending 163
Prestressing 168
8 Providing Shelter - Roofs 173
Common rafter roofs 174
Purlin roofs 179
Longitudinal stability 185
The roof truss 188
The coming of iron 190
Three-dimensional roofs 192
9 Structures in a Three-Dimensional World 198
Vaults 198
The pointed vault 202
Elaborations on the basic vault form 203
Building vaults 206
Domes 207
Some historical examples 212
The modern three-dimensional structure 216
Anticlastic forms 220
Structures in tension 222
Structures for their time and place 224
10 Materials and Workmanship 226
Walling materials 227
Timber 228
Iron and steel 229
Compatibility of materials 233
Material development and design 234
11 Additional Thoughts 235
Friction 235
Tension structures 238
The 'cantilever' stair 243
Modelling 247
Appendix: Some Elements of Grammar 251
Glossary 257
Index 267