Design oriented analysis of imperfect truss structures—part II—approximate analysis

Abstract
An approximate analysis method for calculating local and system geometric imperfection influences on the displacements, stresses and buckling load of imperfect truss structures, is developed. The structural response, as a function of the design variables, is expressed in this approximate analysis which is much faster and cheaper than the ‘accurate’ analysis. The accurate analysis for a particular design is used as a base for each approximate analysis which then gives the response information needed for other designs in the neighbourhood about the base point design. Comparison of the approximate behaviour predictions with accurate results based on the more refined analysis methods shows that the quality of the proposed approximate analysis procedure is adequate for guiding a structural design procedure. It is evident that the approximate analysis is capable of describing the nonlinear behaviour of the structure, but when nonlinearity increases, the quality of the approximate analysis tends to deteriorate.

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