Reliability Comparison of Trusses Made of Thin-Walled Steel Sections

Abstract

The authors suggest a new truss with nodal conjugations without misalignment in the nodes. They have a greater load capacity and reliability. The results have been confirmed by the calculation of the above-mentioned trusses by the finite element method. The reliability function of trusses made of thin-walled steel sections can be determined taking into account the rods destruction probability in the system. We consider a design with the most unfavorable design model in which the destruction of any rod leads to the entire system failure. For the truss refusal it is assumed that the yield point of the material is reached at least in one of its cores. A probabilistic technique for estimating the reliability of rod structures made of thin-walled steel sections has been proposed. Other parameters being equal, including the geometric dimensions of the truss, loads, the nature of their application one can determine the most rational scheme of the truss in terms of its reliability. Differences in nodes design and internal forces direction will lead to a change in their values in trusses elements. Thus, the trusses reliability will depend on the mathematical expectation of internal efforts, camber and flexibility.