Truss

In architecture a truss is a structure comprising one or more triangular units constructed with straight members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes. External forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act only at the nodes and result in forces in the members which are either tensile or compressible forces. Moments (torques) are explicitly excluded because, and only because, all the joints in a truss are treated as re volute.

A planar truss is one where all the members and nodes lie within a two dimensional plane, while a space truss has members and nodes extending into three dimensions. The top beams in a truss are called top chords and are generally in compression, the bottom beams are called bottom chords and are generally in tension, the interior beams are called webs, and the areas inside the webs are called panels