The hollow spherical joints welded with circular pipes applied to the National Swimming Center of China are subjected to large bending moments, but the influence of bending moments is not considered in the design equations in Technical Specification for Latticed Shells. Based on the von Mises yield criterion, multilinear isotropic hardening rule and associated flow rule, the elasto-plastic finite element model is put forward to analyze the behavior of the joints, and a calculation method for the joints under bending moments or eccentric loads is proposed. It is shown by the analytical results of joint that the stiffening rib can improve the ultimate bearing capacity by 10% for joints under axial tensile load, by 40% for joints under axial compressive load, and by 50% for joints under bending moment. The unified calculation equations for joints with or without stiffening rib are put forward, which can be applied to calculating the ultimate bearing capacity of the hollow spherical joints with circular pipes under eccentric loads.
Experimental research and numerical analysis were applied to study the ultimate load capacity(ULC) and reinforcement of circular-hollow-section N-joint.Four specimens were tested under static load.The ULC of each specimen was obtained and the detailed failure conditions were discussed.Based on the results, both welding a plate on the chord member and filling concrete in the chord member are effective to reinforce the N-joint, but it is suggested that these two methods should not be applied simultaneously.Moreover, considering the four important influence factors of ULC of the joints, the ratio of chord diameter to chord thickness, the ratio of diagonal member diameter to chord member diameter, the axial load on the chord member and the gap size between the two brace members, a new prediction formula of ULC of N-joint was put forward based on numerical analysis results.The new formula was proved to be more accurate than the current Chinese design code in a wide range.
