Testing, numerical simulation and design of prestressed high strength steel arched trusses

Abstract

The structural behaviour of prestressed high strength steel arched trusses is studied in this paper through experimentation and numerical modelling. Four 11 m span prestressed arched trusses fabricated from S460 hot finished square hollow section members were loaded vertically to failure. Three of the tested trusses were prestressed to different levels by means of a 7-wire strand cable housed within the bottom chord, while the fourth truss contained no cable and served as a control specimen. Each truss was loaded at five points coinciding with joint locations along its span, and the recorded load-deformation responses at each loading point are presented. Inclusion and prestressing of the cable was shown to delay yielding of the bottom chord and enhance the load carrying capacity of the trusses, which ultimately failed by either in-plane or out-of-plane buckling of the top chord. For the tested trusses, around 40% increases in structural resistance were achieved through the addition of the cable, though the self-weight was increased by only approximately 3%. In parallel with the experimental programme, a finite element model was developed and validated against the test results. Upon successful replication of the experimentally observed structural response of the trusses, parametric studies were conducted to investigate the effect of key parameters such as prestress level, material grade and the top chord cross-section on the overall structural response. Based on both the experimental and numerical results, design recommendations in the form of simple design checks to be performed for such systems are provided.

Theoretical Analysis on the Behavior of Reinforced Industrial Shed Structures with Shape Memory Alloys

“…In the past two decades, post-tensioning has been commonly used to improve the performance of steel and concrete structures [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Nunziata [13] investigated the behavior of post-tensioned steel beams through experimental analysis.…”

Block tearing of S700 high strength steel bolted connections: Testing, numerical modelling and design

“…High strength steels, characterised by yield stresses greater than or equal to 460 MPa, have been attracting increasing attention in the construction industry. The superior mechanical strength (and thus higher strength-to-weight ratio) of high strength steels compared to normal strength steels enable structural components and connections to be designed with smaller dimensions (and thus reduced self-weight), therefore offering more economic and sustainable design solutions, especially for long-span and high-rise structures subjected to heavy vertical loading [2][3][4][5][6][7]. To gain a better understanding of the mechanical performance of different types of high strength steel structural elements and to develop suitable design rules, a number of test and numerical investigations have been conducted; those relating to high strength steel bolted connections are reported below.…”

Reliability Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation based on construction monitoring long-span arch truss

“…The large-span complex space truss structure is widely used in various major buildings because of its beautiful appearance and reliable structure. However, Large-span steel structure has a large span and complex forces [1][2][3][4] , and the potential for damage and destruction is particularly high during the construction phase. There are many hidden safety hazards in the construction of large-span steel structures.…”