On Numerical Results of Reticulated Shell Buckling

Abstract

This paper is mainly focused on the numerical methods which are used to calculate realistically the load-carrying behaviour of reticulated shell structures. It is generally assumed that for an economical analysis, aimed at the saving of material, the material non-linearity has to be taken into consideration if dead loads prevail. For this in the context of finite element analysis the stiffness matrices of elastic and elastic-plastic rod elements are presented.In order to ensure the stability of structures it is indispensable to detect limit loads such as snap-through loads and bifurcation loads. Assuming that snap-through phenomena are quasi static, path-following algorithms can be implemented to trace the load-deflection curves in the postbuckling domain.The testing of the reliability and stability of the algorithms requires a sufficient number of numerical examples. Few will be presented.