Steel truss design

Tekla Structural Designer
2021
Tekla Structural Designer

Steel truss design

Steel truss design overview

In Tekla Structural Designer although trusses can be defined in any material, design is restricted to steel and cold formed truss members only.

The Truss Wizard provides a wide range of standard truss shapes and configurations. This covers most practical layouts of truss. However, you can also modify a standard truss to produce one of slightly different configuration or manually ‘stick build’ your own truss from truss members if it is an unusual layout.

Trusses created by the Truss Wizard will comprise a mix of the following truss member types:
  • Truss member top
  • Truss member bottom
  • Truss member side
  • Truss internal
These are shown in two of the standard configurations below:

Solver elements are created directly between the member insertion points - they do not take into account major and minor snap points, or any offsets that might have been specified in the member properties. Consequently, all intersecting members ‘node’ at the same point – i.e. all internals meet along the set out line of the chords; this assumes that set out lines are coincident with the centroidal axes. Therefore, no in–plane eccentricities are considered in the analysis and design of the trusses.

A wide range of section types can be defined that includes all the common rolled sections. There is no restriction on the type and size of sections that can be connected within the truss. The practicality and efficiency of connections between members is your responsibility. A 'beyond scope' status is issued if a section type has been applied that cannot be checked for a given design condition.

Design is performed using a set of design forces obtained from 3D Analysis. (Grillage Chasedown Analysis and FE Chasedown Analysis results are not required.)

The design checks performed depend on the truss member types as follows:

  • Truss member top and bottom - these are continuous members with axial force and bending principally in the plane of the truss. They are designed as beams for all internal forces (axial, major and minor axis bending and shear) depending upon the section type used. Where tension exists in a chord member, the tension capacity is based on the effective net area.

  • Truss internal - these are restricted to be pin ended, and are designed to the appropriate clauses for tension and compression members. Primary bending moments due to self weight and secondary moments due to eccentricity of their connections are ignored. Effective lengths for compression and effective net area for bolted and welded connections can be taken into account via the properties of the truss members.

  • Truss member side - depending on the truss type selected in the Truss Wizard these will either default to pin ended or fully fixed. If pin ended, the design checks are the same as for Truss internal. If fully fixed at both ends (as in the case of a Vierendeel truss), the design checks are the same as for Truss member top and bottom.
    Note: If a (pin ended) side is intersected by another truss member then it is still designed for axial force only, but a warning is issued indicating the forces that have been ignored.

For top and bottom chords, conditions of restraint can be defined in and out-of-plane for strut buckling and, top and bottom flange for lateral torsional buckling (LTB). It is upon these that the buckling checks are based. Incoming members are identified by the program and sensible default values for whether these provide restraint or not are set up (see Assumptions and Limitations section below). Restraint cannot be added where no incoming member exists but full control of the effective length factors is provided. In all cases Tekla Structural Designer sets the default effective length to 1.0L, it does not attempt to adjust the effective length (between supports for example) in any way. You are expected to adjust the effective length factor (up or down) as necessary. You can also indicate chord sub-beams to be continuously restrained over their length where appropriate.

Note: Effective length factors and continuous sub-beam restraints are edited by right clicking on individual chords and selecting Edit chord reference from the context menu - these can then be specified from the respective lateral and strut restraint pages of the Properties dialog. Continuous sub-beam restraints can also be edited in Show/Alter State > Restraints, as can restraint of internals to chord (defaults to in-plane only for strut and unrestrained for LTB).

Results of your truss design can be viewed on the screen and incorporated into a report. Truss members are listed as a separate type in the Material Listing report.

Assumptions and Limitations

Limitations

The following limitations apply:

  • Web openings, plated sections including Fabsec beams (with or without openings) and Westok beams cannot be used as truss members
  • Chord members cannot be placed vertically
  • The arch member of a bowstring truss is drawn and designed as a series of facets and not as one continuous curved member
  • Truss internals cannot be loaded directly and no loads from floors and roofs are decomposed to them - sides can be loaded, but forces other than axial are then ignored in the design if the pinned ends are not removed.
  • Truss chords are not by default excluded from diaphragm action within a floor slab, but they can be deliberately excluded if required. See: https://teklastructuraldesigner.support.tekla.com/support-article/2816265

Assumptions - Restraints

  • In both top and bottom chords the node points are assumed not to have incoming out of plane members unless you define such members in the model. Hence, at these positions only in-plane strut buckling restraint is assumed as a default. You can of course change these.
  • In a top chord any incoming members not at node points are assumed to provide the following LTB and strut restraints,
    • incoming members at 90 degrees (± 45 degrees) to the plane of the truss i.e. horizontal for a truss in the vertical plane, top and bottom flange restraint for LTB and out-of plane strut buckling restraint,
    • incoming members at 0 degrees (± 45 degrees) i.e. vertical for a truss in the vertical plane, no LTB restraint and in-plane strut buckling restraint.
  • In a bottom chord any incoming members not at node points are assumed to provide the following LTB and strut restraints,
    • incoming members at 90 degrees (± 45 degrees) to the plane of the truss i.e. horizontal for a truss in the vertical plane, top and bottom flange restraint for LTB and out of-plane strut buckling restraint,
    • incoming members at 0 degrees (± 45 degrees) i.e. vertical for a truss in the vertical plane, no LTB restraint and in-plane strut buckling restraint.
  • Lateral restraints to the top or bottom flange of a chord are assumed to be capable of resisting restraint forces not less than those specified in the relevent section(s) of the design code.
  • In all cases, for all member characteristics it is assumed that you will make a rational and ‘correct’ choice for the effective lengths between restraints The default value for the effective length factor of 1.0 may be neither correct nor safe.
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