NONLINEAR FINITE ELEMENT ANAYLSIS OF BEAM STRING STRUCTURE

Beam string structure (BSS) is a new kind of semi-rigid hybrid system, composed of arch, strut and string, has been developed in long-span steel structures in recent years. Based on the principle of virtual work and Updated Lagrange, the formulas of geometric nonlinear F.E.M. for spatial beam element, cable element and truss element are derived respectively in this paper. Taking the one-way BSS model of the steel roof in Guangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center as a computational example by using linear and nonlinear analysis method, the analytical results show that it is appropriate when adopting the straight truss element with two nodes and equivalent elastic modulus to simulate the cable element with small sag. Although the linear analysis can meet the requirement of practical engineering due to its weak nonlinearity of BSS, the nonlinear method is also important to improve the precision theoretically. The conclusions obtained may be helpful to the designers in similar projects.