Structural Analysis Methods II: Structural Systems - Mechanics of Structures: Variational and Computational Methods - page 301

FIGURE 5.30
Loads decomposed into symmetric and antisymmetric load systems.
The analysis of a symmetric structure is efficient because only one portion of the structure
needs to be analyzed. New boundary conditions are needed at the connecting points of
the symmetric parts of the structure. For symmetric and antisymmetric load systems, the
boundary conditions of the portions of the symmetric structure to be analyzed can be
different. Generally, the boundary conditions are obtained from physical observations. In
terms of displacements at the new boundaries, for the symmetric loading systems, there