In this thesis, we study two graph decompositions introduced by Roberston and Seymour: the tree-decompositions and the branch-decompositions. Two graph parameters are associated to these decompositions: the treewidth and the branchwidth. We show how these decompositions can be united under a common combinatorial structure; both treewidth and branchwidth correspond to minimal values of parameters on this common structure. Using this parallel we adapt a general algorithm that computes the treewidth of some graphs to the branchwidth. We can apply this new algorithm to graphs of bounded asteroidal number with polynomial number of minimal separators and d-trapezoid circular graphs. We also use this analogy to adapt structural properties of branc...