Thermal Changes and Fabrication Errors in

Trusses Using the Stiffness Method

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
Temperaturechangesandfabricationerrorsin
trussescanleadtosignificantchangesinthe
internalforcesinadditiontothedisplacements.

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
Thermaleffects

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
Staticallydeterminateandindeterminatetrusses

j - is the number of joints

m is the number of members
R is the number of reaction forces
i is the degree of static indeterminacy, if i is negative, then the
truss is unstable!

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
Staticallydeterminateandindeterminatetrusses

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
Ifsomeofthemembersofthetrussaresubjected
toanincreaseoradecreaseinlengthdueto
thermalchangesorfabricationerrors,thenitis
necessarytousethemethodofsuperpositionto
obtainthesolution
Thisrequires3steps

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
First,thefixedendforcesnecessarytoprevent
movementofthenodesascausedbytemperature
orfabricationarecalculated

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
Second,equalbutoppositeforcesareplacedonthe
trussatthenodes&thedisplacementofthenodes
arecalculatedusingthematrixanalysis

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
Third,theactualforcesinthemembers&the
reactionsonthetrussaredeterminedby
superposingthese2results

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
Step1:Fixedendforces
Thisprocedureisonlynecessaryifthetrussis
staticallyindeterminate!
If a truss member of length L is subjected to a
temperature increase T, the member will
undergo an increase in length of L = TL. If
this displacement is fully restrained, a force
equals AE T will develop, Thus:
p1 N temp EAT
p2 N temp EAT

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
Thefixedendforcesarethentransformedtothe
globalcoordinatesystemasfollows:
ptemp C p
T

IfatemperaturedecreaseoccursthenTbecomes
negative&theseforcesreversedirectiontohold
thememberinequilibrium.

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
If a truss member is made too long by an
amount L before it is fitted into a truss, the
force needed to keep the member at its design
length L is EAL /L:
p1 N fab

EAL

p2 N fab

EAL

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
Inglobalcoordinates,theseforcesare:
p fab C p
T

Ifthememberistooshort,thenLbecomes
negative&theseforceswillreverse

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
Step2:Obtainingthedisplacementsofthenodes:
Followingthestandardprocedure:
SolveforU fromP =K U
HoweverP isassembledfrom:
pload ptemp p fab

pload
whereisduetoexternalmechanicalloading

Trusseshavingthermalchanges&
fabricationerrors
Step3:ForcesintheMembers:
Oncethenodaldisplacementsareobtained,the
memberforcesaredeterminedbysuperposition:
Forcesduetodisplacements(step2)
+
Forcesduetofixedends(step1)

u C u ; p k u N OR p k u ; N p1 2 p2 2

Ntotal N Ntemp N fab

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