UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG
Department of Civil Engineering Science
Structural Engineering 3A (SUS3A11/SUSCIA3): Assignment 2 (Group Project)
Issue date: 09/04/2024 Due date 07/05/2024 (11:30Am)
Note: Marks will be deducted for late submission (10 marks/day of delay).
Your consulting engineering firm has been approached by a client to evaluate a roof design for a small
warehouse. The primary design being considered is composed of Pratt roof trusses that are uniformly
spaced at 5.5 m centers and the span of the truss is 15 m. The height at the peak is 6.0 m from the bottom
cord. A typical drawing for a truss is shown in Figure 1. In addition to evaluating this proposed design,
your design team must propose a second alternative solution. Your design should have different number
of equal width panels and a different truss type (not a Pratt truss). The building is located on an industrial
estate in the city of Durban. A huge part of the surface in the area is covered with buildings.
Figure 1: Design option 1 (Pratt truss)
Additional information:
• Length of the structure = 50 000 mm
• Trusses are spaced 5500 mm apart
• Height at eaves = 10 000 mm
• There are two 3500 x 4000 mm high shutter doors on one gable wall of the structure.
Roof truss and loading information:
• Purlins are spaced at 2 500 mm measured horizontally (At joints in the top chord of the truss).
• Purlins: 180 x 70 x 22 kg/m channel sections.
• Bottom chord: 254 x 146 x 31 kg/m I sections.
• Top chord and bracing members: 150 x 150 x 15 kg/ angle sections.
• Roof sheeting : 0.8 mm thick IBR sheeting
• Thermal insulation: panels with a mass of 1.20 kg/m2
• Services: sprinkler system and lighting system with a mass of of 6.5 kg/m2.
• Assume the mass of each truss to be approximately 15 kg/m2.
• An aluminium signage board with dimensions 2.5 m high x 6.0 m wide x 0.025 m thick hangs
centrally (Joint L2 and L4) on the bottom chord of the truss. Allow an extra 50 kg for lighting
equipment and fixings.
• For live/imposed loading, find the relevant extracts from the South African Standard (SANS
10160-2:2011. The roof structure will be accessible for maintanance and repairs.
Truss loading, support and member connectivity information:
The loading on the structure comprises the following components:
• Truss self-weight (dead load)
• Signage weight (dead load)
• Live load
• Wind loading
The truss has bolted connections to the supporting load bearing walls. However, the connection on the
right side is designed to allow horizontal translation to occur at that joint. The purlins are angled along the
top members of the truss and are connected such that both horizontal and vertical force components can
be transferred to the truss. Once all these individual loading components have been found, they are to be
combined and applied to a typical internal frame according to where they physically act in order to
determine the maximum ultimate limit state load. Please note, consider the self-weight of the truss, and
any live loading to act as a uniformly distributed load along the truss span (kN/m), which will be
‘idealised’ as equivalent point loads acting at the truss joints, when carrying out your analysis.
Design tasks:
a) For the truss in Figure 1 above, discuss its determinancy and stability, both internal and external.
Show relevant calculations and explain your reasoning.
b) Determine the design loading on a typical internal purlin and draw the bending moment diagram
to obtain the maximum design moment.
c) Determine the loads on a typical interior truss for the dead loads, liveloads and windloads. Show
three separate diagrams of the roof truss indicating the loads on each joint as a result of the each of
the above loads. Keep the four different types of loads separate. For wind loading consider all
wind directions and present the case that results in the maximum possible wind loading on the
structure on the main body. All other calculations ahould be included in the Appendices.
d) Identify the distinct factored load combinations applicable to this system. Refer to the relevant
SANS 10160 codes of practice. Compute the factored loads for each load case for the Ultimate
and serviceability limit states.
e) Which of the load cases do you think will result in the maximum possible loads in the truss
memebers? Explain your reasoning and choice.
f) Analyse a typical internal truss based on ULS vertical dead and live loading only, to find the
internal forces acting in every truss member. Use the method of joints to obtain the member
forces. Take advanatge of symmetry if any in the structure and then use the method of sections at
least once at an appropriate location in the truss in order to self-check the results from method of
joints. Show only the final results in the body of your report. Detailed hand calculations should be
included in the Appendix section of your report.
g) Find the maximum axial forces acting on the truss members as result of wind loads. Check to see
whether these forces are smaller or larger than the forces obtained from vertical loading in part (f).
h) Verify your calculations in f and g above through the use of an open source Structural analysis
software package and include the output in your report. You can use Prokon or any other software
package. For useful free truss analysis packages to model variations of your truss geometry to try
and refine your design try; [Link]
i) Evaluate the numerical results. Some questions to consider: What are the peak tensile and
compressive member forces? What is the maximum vertical deflection over all the joints in the
truss? At what joint does the maximum deflection occur? Do these values seem reasonable?
j) In your role as a consultant, you wish to offer a second truss design for the roof system that will,
hopefully, outperform the proposed design currently being considered. You must keep the overall
span of the truss the same, though the height may be different (you may want a flatter or steeper
roof). You may change the number of panels in your new truss system. To support the roofing,
place a purlin at each joint connection along the top of the truss. You may then need to recompute
the loading condition. You may want to initially keep the same material and cross-sectional
properties and try several different truss configurations – this process will help identify how
external forces travel through this system to the supports, which will help you in selecting (and
explaining your selection in your final report). However, you are free to change all design
parameters except the material . You will probably try several different design changes before
selecting your final alternative. Document and discuss your results for this truss: What are the
resulting design loadings and member forces? What is the maximum vertical deflection over all
the joints in the truss? At what joint does this deflection occur? Again, document your work and
place in the Appendix. Use a software package to compute the member forces for your proposed
truss design. However, hand use handculations to confirm at least three member forces to verify
the solution. Check the static derteminancy and stability of your proposed truss design showing all
calculations clealry. Decide on a suitable overall structure and member arrangement ( number of
truss spans, spanning distance, truss depth, diagonal member arrangement etc). Produce a neat
drawing of the truss using hand or a drawing software. Label clearly all the joints in the truss.
k) Compare the behaviour of the two truss systems you have analysed. What are the consequences of
the change in truss type? Be sure to compare and discuss the differences in member forces (both
magnitude and tension/compression analysis.
l) Present all of the above in a clear and concise design report as detailed below.
Assessment:
This project is worth 15% of your final module mark and it includes;
• A written report
• Group presentation during the tutorial sessions
Written Report marks breadown:
• Overall report structure,quality and clarity (see below suggested report format) (10%)
• Conceptual design and loading (50%)
• Truss analysis (30%)
• Drawings and use of a software package(s) (10%)
Report format:
Suggested’ report section headings:
• Summary – Give a brief overview of the aim, method, and your results.
• Table of Contents – Provide section, sub-section and page numbers in a clear layout.
• Introduction – Explain the topic, the aims of the project, and the purpose of the report.
• Assumptions – State any assumptions made in your analyses and design of your trusses.
• Concept Design - Present your workings to show how and why you chose the location, height,
truss depth, number of spans etc.
• Loading – Provide a clear explanation of your loading and load cases considered.
• Analysis – A brief statement of your analysis method with results clearly and concisely presented
(on diagrams and in tables wherever possible). Detailed calculations to be provided in the
Appendices.
• Discussion and Conclusion (no more than half to one page of text is necessary). This should
include:
- A summary of all your structure dimensional choices and member force analysis.
- The better design choice between the two considered designs and why?
- Any recommendations to improve the efficiency of the truss system.
• Personal contribution and learning
• Appendices
• References
Note: Any information that is missing from this design brief should be reasonable assumed and
these assumptions should be stated clearly in the design report. These assumptions should be
properly justified.
Personal contribution and learning – No more than a half of a page by each individual member of the
team outlining:
a) your contribution to the project.
b) what you learnt from the project.
Appendices – Containing all detailed calculations and drawings. Only key calculation results should be
presented in the body of the report, with all detailed calculations of loading, analysis and design
presented in the appendices. When referring the reader to an appendix for further details of data, which
has been summarised in a figure or table in the body of the report, please repeat the same figure/table in
the relevant appendix also. Remember, a picture says a thousand words, so when explaining the
loading and the results of your method of joints do so using figures showing your truss with these
values clearly shown and labelled on them. All calculations in your report must be done in neat
handwriting using pen/paper – NOT typed . The calculation sheet paper provided must be used for this
and all calculations are to be presented in an Appendix of your report. Each page of calculations MUST
also be signed by the original person doing the calculations AND also by the ‘checker’ of the calculations
in the boxes provided on the sheets. Marks will be lost if this is not done. Remember, all calculations in
your report must be done in neat handwriting – NOT typed – and presented on calculation sheet paper
provided. All source documents must be clearly referenced by name where they are used in your report,
as well as in a reference section at the end of your report. Your report must be neatly bound and all pages
should be numberred and Appendices should be properly numbered and referenced in the body of the
report.
