Large Deformation of Inelastic Large Space Frame. II: Application

Material and geometric nonlinear analysis of the tested models for a large space frame is presented based on the 1D finite-element method. The analytical results have been confirmed to agree sufficiently with the experimental results up to a large deformed state. Members-coupled buckling of continuous chords and complicated collapsed states were simulated well. The analytical results of the partial models have shown that coupled buckling between several continuous chords appears to be asymmetric because of the difference in axial forces allowed by adjacent members. Except for whole bucklinglike phenomena, it is possible to analyze a large and complicated space frame with elastoplastic coupled buckling up to a large deformed state.