Abstract
A novel hybrid FRP-aluminum truss system has been employed in a two-rut modular bridge superstructure composed of twin inverted triangular trusses. The actual flexural behavior of a one-rut truss has been previously investigated under the on-axis loading test; however, the structural performance of the one-rut truss subjected to an off-axis load is still not fully understood. In this paper, a geometrical linear finite element model is introduced and validated by the on-axis loading test; the structural performance of the one-rut truss subjected to off-axis load was numerically obtained; the dissimilarities of the structural performance between the two different loading cases are investigated in detail. The results indicated that (1) the structural behavior of the off-axis load differs from that of the on-axis load, and the off-axis load is the critical loading condition controlling the structural performance of the triangular truss; (2) under the off-axis load, the FRP trussed members and connectors bear certain out-of-plane bending moments and are subjected to a complicated stress state; and (3) the stress state of these members does not match that of the initial design, and optimization for the redesign of these members is needed, especially for the pretightened teeth connectors.
Highlights
Among these various cross section trusses, the triangular truss shows remarkable structural advantages over the conventional plane and rectangular trusses, such as the evident weight and material savings compared to the rectangular truss [1], the excellent torsional properties compared to the plane truss [2], and the lower number of joints compared to the rectangular truss [3]
The triangular truss should be designed critically according to the off-axis loading condition other than the onaxis loading condition
A hybrid FRP-aluminum modular truss system was introduced, which is composed of twin triangular trusses and is connected by male jugs and female jaws based on the pretightened teeth connection technique
Summary
The construction materials of these triangular trusses are mainly wood, steel, or aluminum materials. In addition to these applications, the triangular-truss configuration is popularly applied in aerospace engineering, such as the supporting structure of antenna array [4], solar array [5], space station [6] and airship [7,8,9,10], and the antennas of satellite [11, 12]. It is noteworthy that all of the triangular trusses mentioned are subjected mainly to continuously distributed loads or eccentric concentrated
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