• 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.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.459-469
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• 2020

An external prestressed steel-bar truss unit was developed as a new strengthening technology to enhance the seismic performance of an in-plane masonry wall structure while taking advantage of the benefits of a prestressed system. The presented method consists of six steel bars: two prestressed vertical bars to introduce a prestressing force on the masonry wall, two diagonal bars to resist shear deformation, and two horizontal bars to maintain the configuration. To evaluate the effects of this new technique, four full-scale specimens, including a control specimen, were tested under combined loadings that included constant-gravity axial loads and cyclic lateral loads. The experimental results were analyzed in terms of the shear strength, initial stiffness, dissipated energy, and strain history. The efficiency of the external prestressed steel-bar truss unit was validated. In particular, a retrofitted specimen with an axial load level of 0.024 exhibited a more stable post behavior and higher energy dissipation than a control specimen with an observed complete sliding failure. The four vertical bars of the adjacent retrofitting units created a virtual column, and their strain values did not change until they reached the peak shear strength. The shear capacity of the masonry wall structure with external prestressed steel-bar truss units could be predicted using the model suggested by Yang et al.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.783-794
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• 2020

Steel-concrete-steel sandwich composite wall is composed of two external steel plates and infilled concrete core. Internal mechanical connectors are used to enhance the composite action between the two materials. In this paper, the compressive behavior of a novel sandwich composite wall was studied. The steel trusses were applied to connect the steel plates to the concrete core. Three short specimens with different truss spacings were tested under compressive loading. The boundary columns were not included. It was found that the failure of walls started from the buckling of steel plates and followed by the crushing of concrete. Global instability was not observed. It was also observed that the truss spacing has great influence on ultimate strength, buckling stress, ductility, strength index, lateral deflection, and strain distribution. Three modern codes were introduced to calculate the capacity of walls. The comparisons between test results and code predictions show that AISC 360 provides significant underestimations while Eurocode 4 and CECS 159 offer overestimated predictions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.315-325
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• 2019

Double skin composite walls offer structural and economic merits over conventional reinforced concrete counterparts in terms of higher capacity, greater stiffness, and better ductility. This paper investigated the axial behavior of double skin composite walls with steel truss connectors. Full-scaled tests were conducted on three specimens with different height-to-thickness ratios. Test results were evaluated in terms of failure mode, load-axial displacement response, buckling loading, axial stiffness, ductility, strength index, load-lateral deflection, and strain distribution. The test data were compared with AISC 360 and Eurocode 4 and it was found that both codes provided conservative predictions on the safe side.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.557-572
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• 2012

This paper focuses on the vibration control of long-span reticulated steel structures under multi-dimensional earthquake excitation. The control system and strategy are constructed based on Magneto-Rheological (MR) dampers. The LQR and Hrovat controlling algorithm is adopted to determine optimal MR damping force, while the modified Bingham model (MBM) and inverse neural network (INN) is proposed to solve the real-time controlling current. Three typical long-span reticulated structural systems are detailedly analyzed, including the double-layer cylindrical reticulated shell, single-layer spherical reticulated shell, and cable suspended arch-truss structure. Results show that the proposed control strategy can reduce the displacement and acceleration effectively for three typical structural systems. The displacement control effect under the earthquake excitation with different PGA is similar, while for the cable suspended arch-truss, the acceleration control effect increase distinctly with the earthquake excitation intensity. Moreover, for the cable suspended arch-truss, the strand stress variation can also be effectively reduced by the MR dampers, which is very important for this kind of structure to ensure that the cable would not be destroyed or relaxed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.6
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• pp.799-810
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• 2022

This study investigated the effect of the strengthening efficiency of unbonded steel-bar truss system on the out-of-plane behavior of perforated masonry walls. Four full-scale unreinforced masonry (URM) walls with two different planes were prepared using the unbonded steel-bar truss system and a URM walls without strengthening. All masonry walls were tested under constant axial and cyclic lateral loads. The obtained test results indicated that the pinching effect in the out-plane behavior of masonry walls tends to decrease in the in- and out-of-plane strengthened URM walls using the unbonded steel-bar truss system with the higher prestressing force ratio (R_p) of vertical reinforcing bars in the unbonded steel-bar truss system, regardless of the perforated type of the masonry wall. Consequently, the highest maximum shear resistance and cumulative dissipated energy at peak load in the post-peak behavior were observed in the in- and out-plane strengthened URM walls with the highest R_p values, which are 2.7 and 6.0 times higher than those of URM. In particular, the strengthening efficiency of the unbonded steel-bar truss system was primarily attributed to the vertical prestressed steel-bars rather than the diagonal steel-bars, which indicates that the strains in the vertical prestressed steel-bars at the peak load were approximately 1.6 times higher than those in the diagonal steel-bars.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.67-73
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• 2015

In this paper, the simple truss model was modified to predict the punching shear strength of long-span prestressed concrete (PSC) deck slabs under wheel load including the effects of transverse prestressing and long span length between girders. The strength of the compressive zone arounding punching cone was evaluated by the stiffness of inclined strut which was modified by considering aging effective modulus. The stiffness of springs which control lateral displacement of the roller supports consists of the steel reinforcement and prestressing which passed through the punching cone. Initial angle of struts was determined by the experimental observation to compensate for uncertainties in the complexities of the punching shear. The validity of computed punching shear strength by modified simple truss model was shown by comparing with experimental results and the experimental results were also compared with existing punching shear equations to determine level of predictability. The modified simple truss model appeared to better predict the punching shear strength of PSC deck slabs than other available equations. The punching shear strength, which was determined by snap-through critical load of modified simple truss model, can be used effectively to examine punching shear strength of long span PSC deck slabs.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.187-196
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• 2020

Double skin composite wall system owns several structural merits in terms of high load-carrying capacity, large axial stiffness, and favorable ductility. A recently proposed form of truss connector was used to bond the steel plates to the concrete core to achieve good composite action. The structural behavior of rectangular high walls under compression and T-shaped high walls under eccentric compression has been investigated by the authors. Furthermore, the influences of the truss spacings, the wall width, and the faceplate thickness have been previously studied by the authors on short walls under uniform compression. This paper experimentally investigated the effect of width-to-thickness ratio on the compressive behavior of short walls. Compressive tests were conducted on three short specimens with different width-to-thickness ratios. Based on the test results, it is found that the composite wall shows high compressive resistance and good ductility. The walls fail by local buckling of steel plates and crushing of concrete core. It is also observed that width-to-thickness ratio has great influence on the compressive resistance, initial stiffness, and strain distribution across the section. Finally, the test results are compared with the predictions by modern codes.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.89-96
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• 2016

Cable structures are lightweight structures of flexible type, cable members have only axial stiffness related to tension, they can carry neither bending nor compression. This study is the analysis of cable truss systems are composed of upper and low cables by connecting bracing cables, the structural principle is based on a tensegrity system by using bracing tension members, discontinuous compression members and continuous tension members. A hanging roof of cable truss system is too flexible against vertical loads, most cable members are stabilized by connecting the prestressed upper and lower cable by bracing cables. A cable truss roof system is formed by adding a set of cables with reverse curvature to the suspension cables. With the sets of cables having opposite curvature to each other, cable truss is able to carry vertical load in both upward and downward direction with equal effectiveness, and then a cable truss acts as load bearing elements by the assemble of ridge cables, valley cables and bracing cables. This paper will be shown the geometric non-linear analysis result of cable truss systems with various sag ratio for deflections and tensile forces, the analytical results are compared with the results of other researchers.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.315-333
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• 2016

This study aims to perform damage identification for Da-Sheng-Guan (DSG) high-speed railway truss arch bridge using fuzzy clustering analysis. Firstly, structural health monitoring (SHM) system is established for the DSG Bridge. Long-term field monitoring strain data in 8 different cases caused by high-speed trains are taken as classification reference for other unknown cases. And finite element model (FEM) of DSG Bridge is established to simulate damage cases of the bridge. Then, effectiveness of one fuzzy clustering analysis method named transitive closure method and FEM results are verified using the monitoring strain data. Three standardization methods at the first step of fuzzy clustering transitive closure method are compared: extreme difference method, maximum method and non-standard method. At last, the fuzzy clustering method is taken to identify damage with different degrees and different locations. The results show that: non-standard method is the best for the data with the same dimension at the first step of fuzzy clustering analysis. Clustering result is the best when 8 carriage and 16 carriage train in the same line are in a category. For DSG Bridge, the damage is identified when the strain mode change caused by damage is more significant than it caused by different carriages. The corresponding critical damage degree called damage threshold varies with damage location and reduces with the increase of damage locations.