A Strategy for Automatic Elimination of Mechanical Instability in Structural Analysis of Spatial Truss Tower Model

A method for structural analysis of lattice transmission towers considered to be spatial trusses is proposed. It consists in automatic elimination of mechanical instability from the structure. The instability result from the existence of the so-called out-of-plane nodes in a structure model. The method is based on blocking the possible displacements of out-of-plane nodes and the information concerning the need for blocking the specific displacement is obtained from analysis of the system stiffness matrix. Through application of the spatial rod finite elements lattice transmission towers may be analysed with the use of spatial truss models. The short characteristic of the in-house computer program applied for identification of truss members not satisfying the load capacity criterion, comparison of the results obtained by use of the method and ones obtained by applying the plane truss model and the frame model with the reduced member flexural stiffnesses are also presented.