New concepts of transferred and potential transferred forces in structures Original Research Article

New concepts of transferred force and potential transferred force from the loaded surface to the support surface for a structure are introduced. The basic ideas of these new types of forces are explained using a general continuum model for the structure. Numerical procedures to calculate these forces are presented. Several example problems are solved, and a procedure to depict transferred and potential transferred forces as “force transfer” diagrams, is developed. These forces and transfer diagrams show relative importance of various parts of the structure that can be useful in redesign or optimum design of the structure.