Box truss

A box truss is a structure composed of three or more chords connected by transverse and/or diagonal structural elements.

[1] Box trusses are commonly used in certain types of aircraft fuselages, electric power pylons, large radio antennas, and many bridge structures.

By using what are in effect stiff panels in a cylindrical arrangement the resulting structure can have a high resistance to axial torsion (twisting along its long axis) and a higher resistance to buckling in its highly loaded sides.

When finished as an open structure the truss will be less subject to wind drag and to aeroelastic effects than would a completely enclosed structure.

This engineering-related article is a stub.

A box truss structure in a bridge of the Southern Pacific Railroad in California