• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.435-457
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• 2006

The paper presents the cost optimization of composite floor trusses composed from a reinforced concrete slab of constant depth and steel trusses consisting of hot rolled channel sections. The optimization was performed by the nonlinear programming approach, NLP. Accordingly, a NLP optimization model for composite floor trusses was developed. An accurate objective function of the manufacturing material, power and labour costs was proposed to be defined for the optimization. Alongside the costs, the objective function also considers the fabrication times, and the electrical power and material consumption. Composite trusses were optimized according to Eurocode 4 for the conditions of both the ultimate and the serviceability limit states. A numerical example of the optimization of the composite truss system presented at the end of the paper demonstrates the applicability of the proposed approach.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.319-330
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• 1999

The design of composite space trusses is a demanding task that involves taking several decisions on the truss depth, number of panels, member configuration, number of chord layers and concrete slab thickness and grade. The focus in this paper is on the design of top concrete slabs of composite space trusses, and in particular their thickness. Several effects must be considered in the process of designing the slab before an optimum thickness can be chosen. These effects include the inplane forces arising from shear interaction with the steel sub-truss and the flexural. and sheer effects of direct lateral slab loading. They also include a constructional consideration that the thickness must allow for sufficient cover and adequate space for placing the reinforcement. The work presented in this paper shows that the structural requirements on the concrete slab thickness are in many cases insignificant compared with the constructional requirements.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.105-118
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• 2007

On September $11^{th}$ 2001, the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City were struck by two hijacked airplanes. Despite severe local damage induced by the impact, the towers were able to sustain 102 and 56 minutes of the subsequent multi-storey fires before collapsing. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the in-fire performance of composite trusses by examining the behaviour of the longer-span type used in the towers. It makes no attempt to be a forensic study of the actual events. Using the finite element package Vulcan, the structural mechanics of typical long-span composite floor trusses are explained, under a variety of scenarios, as the fire temperatures rise. Different boundary conditions, degrees of protection and loading are all covered, the results being presented mainly in the form of graphs of deflection and internal force of members against time.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.1069-1084
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• 2016

This paper introduces a new and effective design amplification factor-based approach for reliable optimum design of trusses. This paper may be categorized as in the family of decoupled methods that aiming for a reliable optimum design based on a Design Amplification Factor (DAF). To reduce the computational expenses of reliability analysis, an improved version of Response Surface Method (RSM) was used. Having applied this approach to two planar and one spatial truss problems, it exhibited a satisfactory performance.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.637-646
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• 2009

The composite actions of truss beams and floor slabs are not reflected on the design of the truss beam in domestic practice. In this research, basic experiments were conducted on a composite truss with the top and bottom chord members consisting of the H-shaped members. The tests were performed to evaluate the mechanical behaviors of the composite truss on the effects with the shear studs and without them. The specimens consisted of the steel truss and non-composite and composite trusses, and one-point-concentrated loading at the center and equivalent loading were monotonically applied. The composite effects were experimentally identified in the composite trusses using the shear stud connectors.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.637-645
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• 2012

The composite action in truss beam is generally achieved by providing shear connectors between the steel top chord of the truss and the concrete slab. The composite sections have greater stiffness than the sum of the individual stinesses of the slab and truss. Therefore, steel trusses that act compositely with concrete slabs can carry larger load and are stiffer and less prone to transient vibration. The crack pattern and deflection of the beam of the composte truss were investigated by using of 600MPa class steel in this study. The test results were compared with the results for the noncomposite trusses. Test results were also compared with the results of composite trusses by using of 400MPa class steel. It was ascertained that the case of high strength steel is more efficient compared with the case of SS400 steel for T-shaped steel.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.599-608
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• 2010

Steel trusses that act compositely with concrete slabs have proven to be an economical system for long-span floors. The composite action is generally achieved by providing shear connections between the steel top chord and the concrete topping. The composite sections have greater stiffness than the sum of the individual stiffnesses of the slab and truss. Therefore, steel trusses that act compositely with concrete slabs can carry larger loads and are stifferand less prone to transient vibration. During the tests that were performed in this study, the crack pattern and deflection of the beam of the composte truss were investigated. The test results were compared with the results for the noncomposite trusses.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.747-753
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• 2019

Metaheuristic algorithm is used to solve the weight minimization problem of truss structures considering shape, and sizing design variables. The cross-sectional areas of the line element in trusses are the design variables for size optimization and the changeable joint coordinates are the shape optimization used in this study. The design of plane and spatial truss structures are optimized by metaheuristic technique named Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization (TLBO). Finite element analyses of structures and optimization process are carried out by the computer program visually developed by the authors coded in MATLAB. The four benchmark problems (trusses 2D ten-bar, 3D thirty-seven-bar, 3D seventy-two-bar and 2D two-hundred-bar) taken from literature are optimized and the optimal solution compared the results given by previous studies.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.43-58
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• 2015

There are many studies on the optimization of steel trusses in literature; and, a large number of them include a shape optimization. However, only a few of these studies are focused on the prestressed steel trusses. Therefore, this paper aims to determine the amounts of the material and cost savings in steel plane trusses in the case of prestressing. A parallel-chord simply supported steel truss is handled as an example to evaluate the used approach. It is considered that prestressing tendon is settled under the bottom bar, between two end supports, using deviators. Cross-sections of the truss members and height of the truss are taken as the design variables. The prestress losses are calculated in two steps as instantaneous losses and time-dependent losses. Tension increment in prestressing tendon due to the external loads is also considered. A computer program based on genetic algorithm is developed to solve the optimization problem. The handled truss is optimized for different span lengths and different tendon eccentricities using the coded program. The effects of span length and eccentricity of tendon on prestressed truss optimization are investigated. The results of different solutions are compared with each other and those of the non-prestressed solution. It is concluded that the amounts of the material and the cost of a steel plane truss can be reduced up to 19.9% and 14.6%, respectively, by applying prestressing.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.443-458
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• 2005

Steel angles are widely used in roof trusses as web and chord members and in lattice towers. Very often angle members are connected eccentrically. As a result, not only an angle member is under an axial force, but it is also subject to a pair of end eccentric moments. Moreover, the connection at each end provides some fixity so neither pinned nor the fixed end represents the reality. Many national design codes allow for the effects due to eccentricities by modifying the slenderness ratio and reducing the compressive strength of the member. However, in practice, it is difficult to determine accurately the effective length. The concept behind this method is inconsistent with strength design of members of other cross-sectional types such as I or box sections of which the buckling strength is controlled by the Perry constant or the initial imperfection parameters. This paper proposes a method for design of angle frames and trusses by the second-order analysis. The equivalent initial imperfection-to-length ratios for equal and unequal angles to compensate the negligence of initial curvatures, load eccentricities and residual stresses are determined in this paper. From the obtained results, the values of imperfection-to-length ratios are suggested for design and analysis of angle steel trusses allowing for member buckling strength based on the Perry-Robertson formula.