Limit analysis of strut nets

TL;DR

This paper extends the analysis of tension-only cable webs to compression-only 'strut nets', providing a framework for limit analysis of masonry-like structures with fixed and variable loads under kinematic constraints.

Contribution

It generalizes previous tension-web results to compression-only strut nets, enabling the study of masonry-like structures with fixed and variable loads.

Findings

Provides a theoretical framework for limit analysis of strut nets.

Models masonry structures as discrete element systems within polygons/polyhedra.

Addresses the effect of fixed and variable loads on strut net stability.

Abstract

Truss structures composed of members that work exclusively in tension or in compression appear in several problems of science and engineering, e.g., in the study of the resisting mechanisms of masonry structures, as well as in the design of spider web-inspired web structures. This work generalizes previous results on the existence of cable webs that are able to support assigned sets of nodal forces under tension. We extend such a problem to the limit analysis of compression-only 'strut nets' subjected to fixed and variable nodal loads. These systems provide discrete element models of masonry bodies, which lie inside the polygon/polyhedron with vertices at the points of application of the given forces ('underlying masonry structures'). It is assumed that fixed nodal forces are combined with variable forces growing proportionally to a scalar multiplier (load multiplier), and that the supporting strut net is subjected to kinematic constraints at given nodal positions.