Design Analysis of Light Structures
Design Analysis of Light Structures
Design Analysis of Light Structures
ABSTRACT
Extruded aluminium hollow box sections with steel section inserts are riveted together to
form a combined member increasingly used as the basis for the production o1 skeletal
structures ranging from shelters on transport routes to larger covered wallovays at
airports, hospitals and industrial compounds. At these locations the structures have to
be functional. safe and attractive.
The paper reports on research work carried out on the sn'ess and deJlection behaviour of
a typiiat rit.eted combined member investigated using the finite element merhod and
supported bv experimentation. The ffict of the fit benveen the steel secrion and the
aluminium section is given particuior attention.
The paper goes on to report the results of an examination of the dynamic response of
tighi aluminium/steel structures, v'here the dynamic analysis is carried out using the
Tiite element method and long tt'alkway shelters, upwards of 300m, are a pmticular
-focus.
TTte results of a parametric study are presenred and combined virh wind
excitation criteria design curves are proposed.
Conclusions are drawn on the engineering value of the use of aluminium/steel combined
members including the implications for the design of light aluminium/steel strucrures.
1 INTRODUCTION
The last decade has seen an increasing market for light skeletal structures such as long,
covered walirvays, simple bus shelters and larger bus stations constructed from extruded
aluminium sections with steel section inserts riveted together. This type of construction
Fig.l allou,s significant ease of manufacture, for exampie. all elements are easily manhandled with no cranage required and the pre-fabricated panels are easily erected on site.
The structure requires no maintenance while remaining very attractive throughout its life.
These characteristics collectivel-v result in a product that is very competitive in the
market place.
The primar_r' strength of these structures is derived from inserting a thin, cold formed
steel plain channel into an extruded thin walled, aluminium box-section, each component
then riveted together at particular intervals along their length resulting in a combined
member.
Many of the structures manufactured in Glasgow now require a structural integnry check
to British Standards criteria. This requires consideration of snow and wind loading
3] and
[Ref. 2] and the detennination of the stress response of the structure [Ref
[Ref.l],
[Ref.4].
The design and stress analysis of complete structures can only be effectively carried out
by frnite element (FE) anaiysis and only beam elements can be used to represent the
beam
combined members purely on economical grounds. The steel and aluminium
The
points'
elements are 'tied' togethlr in the FE model at nodes located at rivet
aluminium and polycarbonate paneis are represented by plate elements'
Initial research work was undertaken where a typical aluminium/steel combined member
more rigorously by
was investigated as a cantilever modelled by beam elements and then
plate elements. This early work was reported in [Ref' 5]'
th" ,.r.*ch work has continued rvith a more detailed and comprehensive study using
rigorous finite element models. The development of a 'best' finite element model
results of
re-presentation of the physical problem is briefly described and the significant
the study are presented in this paper. Complementary to this work an experimental
tbllowed
investigation was carried out initia[; focusing on a series of load capacity testsby a slress investigation of a combined member rvhere strain gauge technoloey was
applied. The results of the load capacity tests are also presented herein'
2.1
applied at
represented by an encastre/free end cantilever of length 1.26m. The load was
crossthe free end of the cantilever. acting about the major ares of the sections. The
were
tests
section of the structural member is shown in Fig. 2 and it should be noted that
on the
carried out on riveted and unriveted sections to establish if riveting had any effect
member pertbrmance.
2.2
Design Code Approach To obtain a load capacity for the cold formed steel
3
channel for comparison with that obtained from the load tests, BS5950, Part 5, Section
for the aluminium hoilow box
[Ref. 3] *-^ ,.i.o.d to. To determine a load capacity
from
section, BS81 18, Part 1, Chapter 4 [Ref. 4] was referred to. The results obtained
in
found
be
the codes are shown in Table 1. Further details of the above analyses can
to the problem'
[Ref. 6] and [Ref. 7] along with other theoretical approaches
2.3
Member Load Capacity The load capacity tests of the combined members,
end
riveted and unriveted showed that the failure, as expected, occurred at the built-in
2.4
where a plastic hinge mechanism formed in the webs and flanges of the aluminium box
section, and the steel channel faiied due to twisting and warping effects. The difference
in load capacity of riveted and unriveted members was found to be of the order of 5%'
However, it should be noted here that the unriveted combined member had a snug fit and
the riveted combined member had a loose fit. A combined member where there uas a
loose fit rl,ith no rivet was not tested thus a correlation of load capacity between this and
a loose fit rir.eted member cannot be made. It is thus conciuded that riveted combined
members, rvhere a snug fit existed- produced an increase in load capacity of the order of
5yo over loose fitting members. The design codes produced load capacities that u-ere
consen atiye as they provide elastic solutions only with no allowance for plasticin-.
a load capacity uhich
[Ref. 6] and [Ref. 7] show other theoretical approaches to obtain
compare rnuch more favourably u'ith the test results.
OF COMBINED MEMBER
3.1 Introduction The finite element software used for all FE analysis was P.A'FECFE operating on Hewlett Packard workstations. A typical beam/plate finite element
model ofa light structure is shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 shorvs how a combined member is
modelled in this context. The 'generalised constraint' faciiity of the PAFEC sofware is
used to 'tie' the aluminium and steel beam element nodes together. The nodes hence
take the same magnitude of translational deflection in any solution. Plate elements
representing wall and roof panels are corurected to the beam element skeletai stn:cture in
Convergence Study of Plate FE model A convergence study was run tbr each
of the primary members wherein a series of models rvith increasing mesh densiq' near to
the fixed end was generated. From this study a suitabie mesh was generated thar would
ensure accumte stress and deflection values.
Having generated a suitable mesh for the aluminium box section the process was
repeated for the steel channel. The FE models were then combined to represent the
combined member. A typicai plate FE model is shown in Fig. 6 where the aluminium
box is cut away on the front rveb and flange to expose the channel.
3,2
3.3
3.4
Analysis
of
associated with the dynamic response to wind excitation. is a specialised and highly
complex task. The most significant guide for designers avaiiable at present is that
produced bv ESDU International plc. This is, however. apparently limited to particular
types of structures and requires considerable interpretation in its use.
fn tnis studl- a modal analysis is required to be performed to predict naturai frequencies
and mode shapes of typical structures. The criteria invoked from the ESDU design guide
requires the fundamental natural frequency to be identified.
Thi study tbcuses on cantilevered gallows type walkwal-s which can be constructed for
any length without a break in the length. They also mav have roof widths va$ing from
lm to 2m. The height of the gailows column is normaill- constant at2m with a gradual
rake on the roof for drainage purposes. Over its total length, a walkwal' r'vill be
constructed in sections (bays) - one bay is the distance berween consecutive gallows; in
this study the length of each bay of the walkway is 4.9 m. The roof sections are also
constructeci per bay length and is a fabrication of aluminium box or T-sections covered
either by aluminium plate or pol-vcarbonate sheet. Side rvalls are constructed from Tsections with polycarbonate or toughened glass panel inserts.
4.2
Beam/Plate Finite Element Models The finite element software package used
was the ANSYS software. The choice of software was purely based on the expertise of
the researcher. PAFEC could equally have been used to produce the dynamics results.
The modeliing of the light structure in question and combined members is as described in
Section 3.1 and as shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5.
For extremely long structures, upwards of 300m, a replica finite element model requires
a very large number of elements which is undesirable.
Thus the initial part of the study focused on finding an idealised structure which reduced
the number of elements significantly but was accurate in the prediction of natural
frequencies. Three issues were considered:
D the need to include the side wall in the model;
ii) the reduction or idealisation of the roof section to an equivalent plate;
iii) the idealisation of the side rvall to an equivalent plate.
4.2.1 Model of Complete Structure without Side Wall Finite element models of
complete structures were created one with and one without the side wall. The results
presinted in Tabte 4 show that the difference between the fundamental natural
frequencies of the two structure configurations is ll.3% for 1 Bay afi 6.8Yo for 2 Bay.
This indicates rhat the side wail cannot be neglected in a 'best' idealised finite element
representation.
4.2.2 Determination of an Equivalent Plate for Roof Sections The roof of the
[Ref.9].
Comparison of the naturai frequencies between the actual structure model (original roof
and side r.r'ail configurations) and the 'best' model (equivalent roof and side plate) is
given in Table 6. It can be seen that extremely good resuits are obtained.
Proposed design Guides Having established a convenient idealised 'best' finite
element model predicting accurate value of natural frequencies a parameter sudy was
then undertaken to establish an aid to the design of cantilevered walkways. Varying
structure length and roof width, natual frequencies were obtained from many computer
runs. Fig. 11 presents the results of this study as a design guide where linear
interpoiation for roof widths not shown is valid as shown in Fig. 12.
4,2.3
4.2.4
excitation is:-
L.zo
#"
where ( is the damping ratio; the damping ratio for the structures considered here was
selected as 0.005 from the guide and"[ is the fundamental frequency.
Thus,f < 2.12 is the critical value derived from the criterion.
The criterion noted here is shown on Fig. 11 as a line at frequency 2.L2. Thts allorvs
selection of structure lengths to avoid wind excitation problems. For example structures
with roof widths upto 1.65m at any length would not be susceptible to excitation
problems. Between 1.65m and 1.9m the selection of a suitable length of structure
becomes important between 10m and about 120m. This in effect defines the bounds
wherein selection of dimensions is important.
The relevance of this criterion to the type of structure under consideration requires to be
investigated. The criterion was seiected on the basis of matching the walkway with the
class of structure for which the criterion was established. However, the class of srructure
may include a broad range of structure configurations and there is thus doubt as to the
appropriateness of the criterion to the walkway. Research work adopting experimental
approaches is now being undertaken to establish the damping characteristics of the light
structures of this study and to thus identifr more appropriate values of damping ratio.
An alternative criterion derived using a different approach from that of ESDU is also
being considered.
5 CONCLUSIONS
parameters are involled in the investigation of the
problem
of
number
A significant
combined member studied here. Good quality control of the experimental and finite
element w'ork is essential. The testing of the combined member highlighted this point as
the specimens supplied by the manufacturer were not aiu'ays of consistent dimensions.
Results of the investigation shotv that members riveted together, either with the steel
fitting snugly inside the box or not behave almost identically which was aiso verified by
the tests. The effect of a more significant size of gap could be fuither investigated.
Riveted and unriveted combined members do appear to behave differently. The tests and
the FE resuits show an increase in ioad capacity for riveted members of about 5-10% is
gained. Beam finite element models are adequate for design analysis. Beam finite
element stresses for individual members should be factored by about 25Yo for the
aluminium box and IlYo for the steel channel. Beam stresses for a combined member are
sufficientll' close to those of a more rigorous plate element solution and a factor on
stresses is not necessary.
Economic finite element models tbr the dynamic analysis of long, cantilever rvalkway
structures constructed of aluminium/steel members have been established and shown to
give excellent results.
Design cun.es as an aid to the designer of long walklvar- structures have been produced
based on a study of the main parameters. They include the ESDU criterion for smrctures
susceptible to wind excitation. Design curves based on t-rnite element anaiysis can be
produced for other similar type structures and is the preferred way forward.
The ESDU criterion involved herein requires to be examined as to its appropriateness for
the walkway type structures focused on in this study. Appropriate research is being
undertaken.
6 REFERENCES
1.
2.
a
J.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
BS8118, Part I The Structurol (Jse of Aluminiun, BSI, London 1990Tayior,G.T. The Design by Finite Elements of Riveted Aluminium/Steel
Composite Structures, Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Finite
Element Methods.Monte Carlo, November 1993 (pp330-335)'
Macdonald,M. Bending of a Thin-'firailed Combined Section Beam, MSc
Thesis, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Septembet 1993'
Macdonald,M, et zl, The Analysis of Riveted Aluminium/Steel Combined
Members (Jnder Bending Action, Proceedings of CMT 96 Computational
Methods and Testing for Structural Integrity, Kuala Lumpur, March 1996'
E!'
ltlll
Fig. I
Commutaport Product.
(Courtesy: Southside Engineering Ltd).
STEEL CHANNEL.
ALUMINIUM
ALUMINIUM ALLOY
HOLLOW BOX SECT]ON
100x45X
3MM
THK.
39 X 94 X sMM
T}IK.
Fig.2
9d
ATAT
BRAOGT
AJT'T-IN END
FXruRE
u/c TAaI
Experimenul Investigation - Scbcoatic Iayout.
I
I
t\Etra!3 r,b,a,
euar.Y
X, Y,
E..
lt.l
orY.
eEA^i
Et Elt E rtf
Ib-L
Fig.
Stcel chnnnel
Fig.6
Table 1
and Design Code Results
Investigation
Experimental
Specimen Configuration
Experiment'
P(kN)
3.78
i.63 (Bssgso)
3.84
3.80 (8S8118)
t0.25
7.43
9.70
7.43
1.7
0.8
r.76
1.71
4.10
2.51
Table 2
Beam Element Results
Combined Section
Length
Max. Bending
Stress(MN/m2)
Free End
Deflection
1.84m
4.9mm
1.26m
2.68mm
Steel:-
49.84; Al:t
i7.38
Table 3
Plate Element Results
Combined Section
Length
1.84m
1.26m
Max. Bending
Free End
Deflection
Stress(MN/m2)
(Averaged)
(Averaged)
St:4.12mm;
Al: 3.98mm
St:2.875mm;
Al:2.858mm
Steel:
t 40;
Steel: +
45;
411+ 16
611
17
Table 4
Side Wall Effect
Natural Frequencies
Shelter
with
Bay
2Bay
2.5t8
4.147
6.5t4
rr.289
2.240
3.359
5.868
6.650
MODE
side panel
2Bay
Bay
2.263
2.543
5.299
6.028
1
2.098
2.308
3.629
5.917
Table 5
Equivalent Roof Effect
Natural Frequencies
1
MODE
with
Original
with
Original
with
equivalent
model
equivalent
model
equivalent
roof
roof
Original
model
4 Bays
2 Bays
Bay
roof
1.518
2.515
2.240
a aaA
1.'747
4.920
3.3 59
3.446
1.582
2.078
2.615
6.064
+.979
5.291
6.876
:.634
s.831
6.514
6.410
5.868
11.289
1r.230
6.650
r.085
Table 6
Actual Structure Versus Idealised Structure
Natural Frequencies
I Bay
MODE
Original
with
Original
with
model
equivalent
roof &
model
equivalent
roof &
3.518
side plate
2.515
Original
with
model
equivalent
roof &
side plate
side plate
2.240
1.74',7
4.944
3.3s9
6.514
6.351
5.868
11.289
n329
6.650
4 Bays
2 Bays
7.238
3.454
1.085
6.022
6.827
1.979
5.634
2.582
2.078
2.615
5.291
5.831
t.m00E+07
CI
zO
,at
7.flXt0E+07
6.flno8{{)7
L
(r)
5.UXnEr{7
4.00008{{)7
ts
a
EI
3.fiXnE{{)7
2.m00E+07
L0000E{7
0.fimEr{)
:irnge
\\'eb
Nodc Porltion
SIGMAc
Fig. 7
Al
SIGMAe Stccl
I
Von Mises
r@
9.0(mE{7
8.m0E]{7
cl
7.m00E+o7
z,
IL
5.UmE+07
5.(ImE+07
(a
4.fimg+o7
=eo
3.U[0E+O7
2.m08+{)7
LmooEroT
0.(xmElo0
Nodc Poritbn
SIGMAT
Fig. 8
Al
SI(l{AG*d
Von Mises
9.0moEro7
&firc0E{07
7.0mE+07
el
E
z'n
6.m00E+07
u
at 5,fimE{07
L
(n
,It
6
H
4.mmE{7
e 3.UmEr{7
o
2.mOOE{O7
1.0000E+07
0 00008+00
Firnge
Nodc Porition
Fig. 9
Von Mises
FIT \O zuVET
l.(m0E{0t
9.qnOE+07
cl
E
z,
IL
(n
,
,
a,
e
o
t.(m0E+07
7.fimE{'
6.0m0E107
5.(m)E+07
4.00008{{7
3.UnoEto7
2.CmErfi
1.00008+07
0flmE+(n
Hodc Porition
SIGMATAI
Fig.
10
SIeIt.*d
FTf NO RTVET
The Naturat Frequencies against Length and Width of thc Shelter (First Mode)
1.70
1.6{}
1.50
3.()
l.t0
3.20
l.lo
s^
-
3.00
2.m
.9
2.80
$ z.zo
2'60
'o
g 2.50
E
-G! 2.40
2.r0
6 11n
'z
''-"
--O---"
O=___---_-<>'-
O -_{
ESDU
Critical Value
2.t0
2.00
r.9o
1.80
1.70
1.60
1.50
80 2m =0
140
Fig. l l
3.0
2_9
2.8
2.7
2.6
N
?.5
o
tr
o
cr
lt)
Length
2.1
2.3
ct
(,
?.1
2.0
1.9
t.E
1.7
r6
1.20
1.25
r30
1.35
1.75
t.80
t.tlt
Roof width(m)
Fig
12.
1.q)
1.95
SNUG + RIVET
FIT
-
SNUG
NO RIVET
FIT
LOOSE + RIVET
FIT
LOOSE NO RIVET
F'IT
Fig. 13 Schematic Representation
of Snug and Loose Fits