Semi-Rigid Connection in Timber Structure: Stiffness Reduction and Instability Interaction

Latticed shells and domes usually consist of hundreds, sometimes thousands, beam elements connected by rigid or semi-rigid joints. These connecting elements result, generally, very sophisticated, made with different materials and constituted by disparate connection systems. Recently, the stiffness connections were studied, numerically and experimentally, as one of the most important factors influencing significantly the structural response of space structures and domes. Very often, in the design process, the joints are assumed to be hinged or clamped. This assumption may result significantly far from the actual condition of in-service structure and components, leading to not understanding or not being able to prevent sudden catastrophic collapses (buckling, snap-through). Thus, the inclusion of joint stiffness reduction in the numerical model is necessary, more and more also due to the types of external loads, such as overloads that occur during the life of the structure or, especially, seismic solicitations. In this paper, the stability of an existent timber dome has been studied increasing the yieldingness of the connecting nodes according to an original approach. In addition, sensitivity of this kind of structure to the amplitude and the geometrical imperfections shape have been also considered. Numerical analyses have been conducted with local displacement controls, to take into account the geometric nonlinearity effects. Results evidenced that the dome is affected by instability interaction for particular slenderness and stiffness reduction of the connections.