Design of Industrial Building (Truss Structure)

The structural engineer has to consider the following points during the planning and design of
industrial buildings (Fisher 1984):
(a) Selection of roofing and wall material
(b) Selection of bay width
(c) Selection of structural framing system
(d) Roof trusses
(e) Purlins, grits, and sag rods
(f) Bracing systems to resist lateral loads
(g) Gantry girders, columns, base plates, and foundations

Selection of Roofing and Wall Material

 The type of roof deck, type of purlin used, purlin spacing, deflections of secondary
structural members, roof pitch, and drainage requirements are all determined by the
choice of roofing.
 The roof weight also affects the gravity load design of the roof system and in the case of
seismic calculations, the lateral load design.
 The weight of Metal roofing varies from 0.3 kN/m2 to 1kN/m2, including the weight of
joists, and 0.05 kN/m2 to 0.1 kN/m2, excluding the weight of joists.
 The weights of Galvanized Iron (GI) Sheets the sheets vary from 50-156 N/m2
 The sheets are fastened to purlins or side girts by 8-mm-diameter J- or L-type hook bolts
with GI nuts along with GI and bituminous felt washers at a maximum pitch of 350 mm.
Where laps do not occur over supports, 6-mm diameter bolts at a maximum pitch of 250
mm for roofs and 300-450 mm for sides are used.
 The maximum purlin spacing is 1.8 m for a 2000-mm long and 750-mm wide sheet.
 The weight of asbestos sheets varies from 160 N/m2 to 170 N/m2

Selection of Bay Width

 A bay is defined as the space between two adjacent bents (see Fig. 1.26). The roof truss
along with the columns constitutes a bent.
 The space between two rows of columns of an industrial building is called an aisle or
span.
 The function of a bracing is to transfer horizontal loads from the frames (such as due to
wind or earthquake or horizontal surge due to acceleration and breaking of travelling
cranes) to the foundation
 The longitudinal bracing on each longitudinal end provides stability in the longitudinal
direction.
 The gable bracings provide stability in the lateral direction. The tie bracings at the bottom
chord level transfer lateral loads (due to wind or earthquake) of trusses to the end gable
bracings.
 Purlins act as lateral bracings to the compression chords of the roof trusses, which
increase the design strength of the compression chords.
Pitches of Trusses
The pitch of a truss is defined as the ratio of the height of the truss to its span..Most of the trusses
are pitched. This is mainly done to drain off rain water on the sheeted slopes. In addition to
providing the slope, the joints in As seen in Fig. the sheeting should be effectively sealed with
mastic or washers. The pitches usually provided for various types of roof coverings are given in
A pitch of 1/4 is found economical in cases where the roof has to carry snow loads in addition to
wind loads. Where snow loads do not occur, lower pitches up to 1/6 are suitable. Lower pitches
are advantageous since the wind pressure on the roof is reduced.

Pitch of Roof Truss= Height / Span

Spacing of Trusses
The spacing of trusses is mostly determined by the spacing of supporting columns, which in turn
is determined by the functional requirements. Where there are no functional requirements, the
spacing should be such that the cost of the roof is minimized. The larger the spacing, the smaller
the cost of trusses, but larger is the cost of purlins and vice-versa. Roof coverings also cost more,
if the spacing of the trusses is large.
S is the spacing of the trusses, C, is the cost of trusses/unit area, Cp is the cost of purlin/unit area,
C, is the cost of roof coverings/unit area, and C is the overall cost of the roof system/unit area.
Ct = Cr + 2Cp
Equation shows that an economic system is obtained when the cost of trusses is equal to the cost
of roof covering plus twice the cost of purlins. It has been found that the economic range of
spacing is 1/5 to 1/3 of span. For lighter load, say, carrying no snow or superimposed load except
wind, the larger spacing may be more economical. Spacing of 3-4.5 m for spans up to 15 m and
4.5-6 m for spans of 15-30 m may result in economy.
The distance between the two consecutive trusses is called spacing of truss. Following guidelines
may be used for deciding the spacing of trusses.
a. 3 to 4.5 m up to 15m span
b. 4.5 to 6m for 15 to 30m span
c. For span more than 40m spacing of 12 to 15m may be used with cross trusses replacing
purlins.
Spacing of Purlins
The spacing of purlins depends largely on the maximum safe span of the roof covering and
glazing sheets. Hence, they should be less than or equal to their safe spans when they are directly
placed on purlins. Thus for corrugated GI sheets, the purlin spacing may vary from 1.5 to 1.75 m,
and for corrugated AC sheets, it is limited to 1.4 m, for 6-mm thick sheets, and 1.6 m, for 7-mm
thick sheets. For larger spans, if the configuration of the truss is such that it is not feasible to
place purlins at the nodes of upper chords, the purlins are placed between the nodes, thus
introducing bending moments in the upper chords, in addition to the compressive force due to
truss action (see Fig. 12.9). Hence in this case, the weight of the truss may be increased by about
10-15%. Therefore, it is preferable to place purlins at the nodal point of the truss, so that the
upper chord members are subjected to only direct compression.
Loads on Trusses
The main loads on trusses are
1. Dead,
2. Imposed, and
3. Wind loads.

The dead load is due to sheeting or decking and their fixtures, insulation, felt, false ceiling (if
provided), weight of purlins, and self weight. This load may range from 0.3 to 1 .O kN/m2. Also
the truss may be used for supporting some pipe line, fan, lighting fixtures, etc. Hence to take into
account this probability, it may be worthwhile considering an occasional load of about 5 to 10
kN distributed at the lower panel points of the truss.
The imposed load on roofs will be as per IS 875 (Part 2). The snow loads may be computed as
per IS 875 (Part 4). The wind loads should be calculated as per IS 875 (Part 3).
Wind loads are important in the design of light roofs where the suction can cause reversal of load
in truss members. For example, a light angle member is satisfactory when used as a tie but may
buckle when the reversal of load makes it to act as a strut.
Since earthquake load on a building depends on the mass of the building, earthquake loads
calculated as per IS 1893 (Part l), 2002, usually do not govern the design of light industrial
buildings. Thus wind loads usually govern the design of normal trussed roofs.

Load Combination for Design

1. Dead load + imposed load (live load)
2. Dead load + snow load
3. Dead load + wind load (wind direction being normal to the ridge or parallel to ridge whichever
is severe)
4. Dead load + imposed load + wind load (which may not be critical in most of the cases)

Design of Truss Members

The members of the trusses are made of either rolled steel sections or built-up sections
depending upon the span length and intensity of loading.The various steps involved in the design
of truss members are as follows:
 1. Depending upon the span, required lighting, and available roofing material, the type of
truss is selected and a line diagram of the truss is sketched.
2. Various loads acting over the truss are calculated using IS 875 (Parts 1-5).
3. The purlins are designed and the loads acting on the truss at the purlin points are
computed.
4. The roof truss is analysed for the various load combinations using the graphical method
or the method of sections or joints or by a computer program and the forces acting on the
members for various combinations are tabulated.
5. 5. Each member may experience a maximum compressive or tensile force (called the
design force) under a particular combination of loads. Note that a member which is under
tension in one loading combination may be subjected to reversal of stresses under some
other loading combination. Hence, the members have to be designed for both maximum
compression and maximum tension and the size for the critical force has to be adopted.
The design for compression is done as per Sections 5.8.4,5.9.1,5.10, and 5.12. The
principal rafter is designed as a continuous strut and the other compression members are
designed as discontinuous struts. The limiting slenderness ratios are discussed in Section
5.10.1. The effective length of compression members is taken as per Section 5.8.4.1.
Similarly, the design for tension is done as per Section 3.7.2.
6. When purlins are placed at intermediate points, i.e., between the nodes of the top chord,
the top chord will be subjected to bending moment in addition to axial compression.
Since the rafter is a continuous member, the bending moments may be computed by any
suitable method (say, moment distribution method or computer program). Then the
member is designed for combined bending and axial compression as per Section 9.5.1.
7. The members meeting at a joint are so proportioned that their centroidal axes intersect at
the same point, in order to avoid eccentricity. Then the joints of the trusses are designed
either as bolted (see Section 10.6.2) or as welded joints (see Section 11.11.1). If the joint
is constructed with eccentricity, then the members and fasteners must be designed to
resist the moment that arises. The moment at the joint is divided between the members in
proportion oftheir stifhess.
8. The maximum deflection of the truss may be computed by using either strain energy
method or matrix stiffness analysis program. A computer analysis gives the value of
deflection as part of the output. This deflection should be less han that specified in Table
6 of the code.
9. The detailed drawings and fabrication drawings are prepared and the materialtake- off is
worked out.
10. The lateral bracing members are then designed. When a cross braced wind girder is used,
as shown in Fig. 12.11(a), it is necessary to use a computer analysis program, since the
truss will be redundant. However, it is usual to neglect the compression diagonal and
assume that the panel’s shear is taken by the tension diagonals, as shown in Fig. 12.1 l(b).
This idealization is useful to make the wind girder determinate and obtain the forces in
various members by using method of sections or method of joints.

From practice, the following minimum sections are recommended for use in
compound fink roof trusses.
Rafters-2 ISA 75 x 50 x 6
Main ties-2 ISA 75 x 50 x 6
Centre tie-2 ISA 65 x 45 x 6
Main sling-2 ISA 65 x 45 x 6
Main strut-ISA 65 x 45 x 6
All other members-ISA 50 x 50 x