Design‐oriented analysis of imperfect truss structures—part I—accurate analysis

Abstract

An accurate nonlinear analysis procedure for calculating the displacement stresses and system buckling loads of geometrically imperfect truss structures is developed. The investigation considers both local and system imperfections. This nonlinear analysis takes first‐order geometrically nonlinear effects into account. The accuracy of the analysis procedure is confirmed by comparison with analytical and experimental results for truss structures drawn from the literature. The results show that local and system imperfections can have strong influence on the behaviour of truss structures and therefore should be taken into account. It is shown that nonlinear effects play a major role in the phenomena and therefore simplified analyses that neglect nonlinear effects are inadequate.