What are the characteristics of Vierendeel girder?

The Vierendeel girder design is sometimes adopted in the design of footbridges. In traditional truss design, triangular shape of truss is normally used because the shape cannot be changed without altering the length of its members. By applying loads only to the joints of trusses, the members of truss are only subjected to a uniform tensile or compressive stress across their cross sections because their lines of action pass through a common hinged joint.

The Vierendeel truss/girder is characterized by having only vertical members between the top and bottom chords and is a statically indeterminate structure. Hence, bending, shear and axial capacity of these members contribute to the resistance to external loads. The use of this girder enables the footbridge to span larger distances and present an attractive outlook. However, it suffers from the drawback that the distribution of stresses is more complicated than normal truss structures