Public Thesis Defense of Shuyuan HAN - LAB
sst |
Graphical Methods for Continuous Beams and Frames:
Historical, Pedagogical, and Design Approaches
Wednesday, 24 September 2025 at 4:20p.m. - Room SUD03 - Place Croix du Sud - 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
This dissertation revisits and redevelops historical graphical methods for the elastic analysis of continuous beams and frames — an underexplored branch of graphic statics. Although graphic statics is well known for its clear and intuitive handling of axial-force structures, its application to flexural and statically indeterminate systems has been largely overlooked in modern research. Historical documents show that between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, several graphical techniques were developed for the analysis of continuous beams and frames, most notably the fixed-points method and a group of tentative approaches referred to in this thesis as the trial-closing-string methods. Despite their early prominence, these methods have since faded from both academic and practical use.
This study begins by reviewing the historical development and theoretical basis of these method, with particular emphasis on the fixed-points method and the characteristic-points method from the trial-closing-string family. On this foundation, the dissertation proposes two new graphical techniques: Method I (an enhanced characteristic-points methods,) and Method II (a hybrid approach integrating the fixed-points method with Method I). Both methods, especially Method II, establish intuitive bidirectional relationships between stiffness and bending moments. They are designed to be more accessible to architects and adaptable to complex frame structures.
Implemented within interactive parametric design environments, the educational and practical potential of these methods is further examined. In teaching, Method I offers a dynamic graphical interpretation of classical structural analysis, while Method II supports the cultivation of intuition regarding stiffness–moment interactions. In design applications, both methods enable parametric feasibility checks, providing greater transparency, real-time bidirectional control, and clearer geometric constraints compared to conventional finite element tools.
Jury members
- Prof. Denis ZASTAVNI (UCLouvain)(Supervisor)
- Prof. Sergio ALTOMONTE (UCLouvain) (Président)
- Prof. Luca SGAMBI (UCLouvain) (Secretary)
- Prof. Saliklis EDMOND (Cal Poly, USA)
- Dr. Karl-Eugen KURRER (University of Applied Sciences, Coburg, Germany)