Spring Clinch Joint And Feasible Analysis Of Its Application In The Plane Type Space Truss

The development of the space structure has two requirements. One is to enlargethe application scope of the space structure and the other is to decrease the expensesof the structure. One of the approaches to resolve this problem is to research on andimprove the forms and the design theories of the current space structures and adoptindustrialized members. In this paper, in order to meet this development trend andbased on the successful experiences of former prefabricated plane type space trusssystems, a novel joint-spring clinch joint is used to come up with a new plane typespace truss system-spring clinch joint space truss system and the feasibility of thisnew structure is also analyzed. The whole paper can be divided into two main parts. The first part gives a simpledescription of several successful prefabricated plane type space truss systems. On thebasis of their successful experiences, the spring clinch joint is applied to present anew plane type space truss form. The composing, working mechanism, conjunctivemanner for steel tubes and cables of the spring clinch joint and its advantages areclearly illuminated. The constitution and superiority of the new structure form areintroduced. The second part of this paper mainly provides evidences of the feasibility of thenew structural form. Using programs developed with Visual Basic, the internal forceof several small-span spring clinch joint plane type space trusses and middle-spanspring clinch joint plane type space trusses are calculated and their members aredesigned according to the codes. A comprehensive comparison is made between everyspring clinch joint plane type space truss and the corresponding rectangular squarepyramid space truss, which has the same plane dimension, grid dimension, height,supports, and bears the equal dead load and live load as the spring clinch joint planetype space truss. Regardless of joints, the spring clinch joint plane type space trussconsumes less steel than rectangular square pyramid space truss because manythin-wall steel tubes are adopted and their resistances for compressive stress areenhanced. The distribution of internal force of the spring clinch joint plane type spacetruss is more even than that of rectangular square pyramid space truss because thespring clinch joint plane type space truss is a half-flexible space structure, which iscomposed of steel tubes, cables and spring clinch joints.