Line of thrust
Line of forces in a retaining wall or arch
The line of thrust is the locus of the points, through which forces pass in a retaining wall or an arch. It is the line, along which internal forces flow.
In a stone structure, the line of thrust is a theoretical line that through the structure represents the path of the resultants of the compressive forces. For a structure to be stable, the line of thrust must lie entirely inside the structure.
01Where important
The line of thrust is important in almost any architecture bearing weight. This includes aircraft, bridges, plus arches; see catenary arch.
An arch won't collapse, when the line of thrust is entirely internal to the arch, .
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Line of thrust”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Line of thrust.png by Safa Daneshvar, CC BY-SA 4.0
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