14.8 Trusses Having Thermal Changes
and Fabrication Errors
If some of the members of the truss are subjected to an increase or
decrease in length due to thermal changes or fabrication errors, then it is
necessary to use the method of superposition to obtain the solution. This
requires three steps. First, the fixed-end forces necessary to prevent
movement of the nodes as caused by temperature or fabrication are
calculated. Second, the equal but opposite forces are placed on the truss
at the nodes and the displacements of the nodes are calculated using
the matrix analysis. Finally, the actual forces in the members and the
reactions on the truss are determined by superposing these two results.
This procedure, of course, is only necessary if the truss is statically
indeterminate. If the truss is statically determinate, the displacements at
the nodes can be found by this method; however, the temperature
changes and fabrication errors will not affect the reactions and the
member forces since the truss is free to adjust to these changes of length.
Thermal Effects. If a truss member of length L is subjected to a
temperature increase the member will undergo an increase in length
of where is the coefficient of thermal expansion. A
compressive force applied to the member will cause a decrease in
the member’s length of If we equate these two
displacements, then This force will hold the nodes of the
member fixed as shown in Fig. 14–14, and so we have
Realize that if a temperature decrease occurs, then becomes negative
and these forces reverse direction to hold the member in equilibrium.
We can transform these two forces into global coordinates using
Eq. 14–10, which yields
(14–25)
Fabrication Errors. If a truss member is made too long by an
amount before it is fitted into a truss, then the force needed to
keep the member at its design length L is and so for the
member in Fig. 14–14, we have
1q
F
2
0
=-
AE¢L
L
1q
N
2
0
=
AE¢L
L
q
0
= AE¢L>L,
q
0
¢L
D
1Q
Nx
2
0
1Q
Ny
2
0
1Q
Fx
2
0
1Q
Fy
2
0
T= D
l
x
0
l
y
0
0 l
x
0 l
y
TAEa¢Tc
1
-1
d= AEa¢TD
l
x
l
y
-l
x
-l
y
T
¢T
1q
F
2
0
=-AEa¢T
1q
N
2
0
= AEa¢T
q
0
= AEa¢T.
¢L¿=q
0
L>AE.
q
0
a¢L = a¢TL,
¢T,
564
CHAPTER 14 TRUSS ANALYSIS U SING THE STIFFNESS METHOD
14
Fig. 14–14