STRUCTURAL PERFORMANCE OF SPACE TRUSSES UNDER FIRE

An experimental program was designed in the current work to capture the structural behavior of two different space trusses under static loads and under increasing the temperature at the truss nodes up to failure. The results of the two space trusses tested include the central deflection of the truss and the axial forces in truss members under the applied loads and temperature. Also analytical studies based on finite element method for the two tested trusses are introduced in this paper. A comparison between experimental work and analytical study is presented and discussed. The finite element simulation gives good agreement with the experimental results. Also the results of the current work indicate that increasing the temperature causes a local failure due to fusion of the node at which the temperature was applied.