Abstract
This paper presents a preliminary evaluation of the load-bearing performance of an existing cast steel node in a constructed tennis stadium using numerical simulations and non-destructive field tests. Given the absolute stress values of the existing cast steel node were immeasurable, the accuracy of the numerical simulations were verified by comparing the stress increments derived from numerical simulations and non-destructive field tests. During the experiment, the existing cast steel node was loaded indirectly by moving the retractable roof to three different positions (i.e. closed, semi-opened and fully-opened configurations); thus, only the stress increments were recorded. Three simplified truss models and one solid finite-element model were developed to simulate the stress distributions with the corresponding roof positions. A comparison suggests that the stress increments simulated with the developed finite-element models were in good agreement with experimental results. Therefore, the simulated stress distributions can be used to judge the load-bearing performance of the existing cast steel node.
Highlights
To date, cast steel nodes are widely used as connecting joints in large span spatial structures, such as stadiums, airport terminals and public transportation hubs, given their advanced mechanical performance and flexible forms [1]
Cast steel nodes are widely used as connecting joints in large span spatial structures; their load-bearing performance must be evaluated carefully
This paper has presented a preliminary evaluation of an existing cast steel node using numerical simulations and non-destructive field tests
Summary
Cast steel nodes are widely used as connecting joints in large span spatial structures, such as stadiums, airport terminals and public transportation hubs, given their advanced mechanical performance and flexible forms [1]. There are four primary constraints that prevent field tests from being applied to existing cast steel nodes and experimental results from being compared to numerical simulations. The initial parameters (e.g. initial strain, stress, etc.) of an existing cast steel node may not have been recorded; experimental results may be incomparable to those obtain by numerical simulation. This paper reports an effort to overcome the above constraints by studying the load-bearing performance of an existing cast steel node in a constructed tennis stadium using numerical simulations and non-destructive field tests. The existing cast steel node was loaded indirectly by moving the retractable roof to three different positions (i.e. closed, semi-opened and fully-opened configurations).The stress increments were measured by using the fibre-optic strain gauges. The predicted maximum stress can be used to judge the load-bearing capacity of the existing cast steel node
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