Maxwell-Cremona Diagram

(stress diagram), a graphical method of determining the stresses in the bars of flat trusses. The diagram was developed by the British physicist J. C. Maxwell and the Italian mathematician L. Cremona (1830-1903). The construction of a Maxwell-Cremona diagram is based on examination of the equilibrium conditions at the joints of the truss and consists in the step-by-step construction of closed polygons of external and internal forces, whose sides are parallel to the corresponding truss bars and represent to scale the longitudinal stresses in them. The merits of a Maxwell-Cremona diagram are the compactness and clarity of its construction.