• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.429-438
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• 2011

In this study, the explicit numerical algorithm was proposed to simulate the stress erection process and ultimate-load analysis of the strarch (stressed arch) system. The strarch system is a unique and innovative structural system and member prestress comprising prefabricated plane truss frames erected through a post-tensioning stress erection procedure. The flexible bottom chord, which has sleeve and gap details, is closed by the reaction force of the prestressing tendon. The prestress imposed on the tendon will enable the strarch system to be erected. This post-tensioning process is called "stress erection process." During this process, plastic rigid-body rotation occurs to the flexible top chord due to the excessive amount of plastic strain, and the structural characteristic is unstable. In this study, the dynamic relaxation method (DRM) was adopted to calculate the nonlinear equilibrium equation of the system, and a displacement-based finite-element-formulated filament beam element was used to simulate the nonlinear behavior of the top chord sections of the strarch system. The section of the filament beam element was composed by the amount of filaments, which can be modeled by various material models. The Ramberg-Osgood and bilinear kinematic elastic plastic material models were formulated for the nonlinear material behaviors of the filaments. The numerical results that were obtained in the present study were compared with the experiment results of the stress erection and with the results of the ultimate-load analysis of the strarch unit frame. The results of the present studies are in good agreement with the previous experiment results, and the explicit DRM enabled the analysis of the post-buckling behaviors of the strarch unit frame.