Analysis of beam-like lattice trusses

A simple procedure is presented for predicting the thermoelastic and free vibration responses of large repetitive beam-like trusses. The procedure is based on replacing the original lattice structure by an equivalent continuum beam model and obtaining closed-form (exact) solutions for the beam model. The equivalent beam model accounts for warping and shear deformation in the plane of the cross-section and is characterized by its thermoelastic strain and kinetic energies, from which the equations of motion and constitutive relations can be derived. The high accuracy of the results obtained by the proposed approach is demonstrated by means of numerical examples.