Comparative Analysis of the Resistances of Uniplanar Joints in Lattice Structures

Abstract

The aim of the study is to compare the design resistance of selected planar K-type joints in lattice girders, made of square hollow sections. A comparative analysis was carried out using three methods: Eurocode 1993-1-8 (EC3) application rules, the FEM method using Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis software, and the CBFEM method using Idea Statica software. The resistance of lattice joints depends on many parameters and the range of possible cases seems to be infinite. Therefore, the study was limited to investigating the influence of the variation of the four geometrical parameters of the nodes. The research also reports and discusses the differences in the results obtained from the three methods mentioned above and shows that there is a need to extend the provisions of the EC3 standard with additional cases that may occur when designing lattice structures.