The in-plane effective length of members in aluminum alloy reticulated shell with gusset joints

This paper presents an analytical research on the in-plane stability of members in single-layer reticulated latticed shells with aluminum alloy gusset (AAG) joints. The influence of two kinds of actual boundary conditions are considered, namely, the stiffness of the AAG joint (k(1)) and restraint of adjacent members (k(2)). In order to explore the influence of k(1), an experimental program including 5 member specimens with AAG joints is introduced, and finite element (FE) models are established and verified. Based on the test and FE results, the effective length of the specimens are obtained. Subsequently, theoretical analysis is conducted to investigate the effect of k(2), with accounting for the stiffness reduction caused by axial compressive force. Finally, the effective length factors of members in reticulated shell with AAG joints are derived and tabulated. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the necessity of considering the influence of k(1) and k(2), and verify the good accuracy of the given effective length factors.