Innovative steel 3D trusses for preservating archaeological sites: Design and preliminary results

Abstract Steel three-dimensional lattice trusses are highly efficient technical solutions to cover large spans, especially when single members are not provided with intermediate restraints able to prevent lateral-torsional buckling phenomena. In the present paper, a compound structure made of steel lattice beams and structural glass slabs is proposed for protection of monumental and archaeological sites. Due to both the risk exposure of monumental heritage to be protected and the use of structural glass, the definition of an appropriate design criterion is mandatory in order to avoid brittle collapse mechanisms. The attention is herein paid to the design procedure, with a brief description of basic ideas behind and the main focus on the parametric capacity design of the structure. The proposed procedure, whose validity is quite general, has been herein implemented by linear numerical analyses, which represent the basic step for further refined analysis aimed at erecting a full-scale prototype to be experimentally tested.

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