Robustness and damage of an airport space frame structure

We present a robustness analysis of an existing airport space frame structure conducted on a finite element model based on the original design documents. The structure is modeled as a spatial truss composed by elastic, perfectly hinged bars. With respect to five main design loading conditions, the most compressed bar and the most stretched bar among the top layer, the bottom layer and the diagonals, are alternately removed, and the stress variations in the remaining bars monitored. Also, reductions of the most stressed bars’ axial stiffness are considered and linearized global buckling analyses are conducted to investigate the effect of a global loss of stiffness, due to local losses. Information about the general behavior of the structure in case of failure, or damage, of a key element are thus obtained.