This thesis documents the tasks in support of the design and instrumentation of a miniature tensile load frame.

Metal building frames are typically designed using welded prismatic and web-tapered members with doubly-symmetric and/or singly-symmetric cross sections. Until recently, the base U.S. provisions for design of frames with web-tapered members were provided in the AISC ASD (1989) and LRFD (1999) Specifications. Unfortunately, these previous AISC provisions address only a small range of practical designs. As a result, metal building manufacturers have tended to develop their own methods for design of the wide range of nonprismatic member geometries and configurations encountered in practice. This research develops new design procedures for design of frames using general prismatic members and web-tapered members. An equivalent prismatic member concept utilized in prior research and the prior AISC provisions is generalized to accommodate the broad range of member types and configurations commonly used in metal building industry. Furthermore, the new design procedures incorporate many of the improvements achieved in the AISC (2005&2010) Specifications to metal building frame design. These improvements include a new stability design method, the direct analysis method, more complete considerations of different column buckling limit states (flexural, torsional and flexural-torsional buckling), and improved axial load and flexural resistance provisions. This research develops practical design-based procedures for simplified calculation of the elastic buckling resistances of prismatic and web-tapered members to facilitate the application of the proposed design methods. In addition, this research performs a relatively comprehensive assessment of beam lateral torsional buckling (LTB) behavior and strength of prismatic and web-tapered members using refined virtual test simulation. It is demonstrated that web-tapered members behave in a comparable fashion to prismatic members. Based on the virtual simulation study, recommendations for potential improvement of the AISC LTB resistance equations are provided. Lastly, the strength behavior of several representative metal building frames is studied in detail using the same virtual test simulation capabilities developed and applied for the assessment of the beam LTB resistances.

This diploma thesis deals with description of the design of the rear of the vehicle structure of Formula Student processed by using a 3D CAD system. Formula have to fulfill all requirements Formula Student rules. The requirements and rules are given by building of engine and other considered engine components. The final version of the design of the rear part is assembled with the supplied front and the computational model is created to simulate the torsional stiffness of the FEM system. Another analysis model is created for a foreign supplied frame construction. Both of these frames are in terms of torsional stiffness evaluated and mutually compared. There are also mentioned selected Formula Student rules and overview of the formula frames and their overview.

The objective of the diploma thesis is a design and check of load-bearing concrete structure of multi-storey residential building. The building is located in Brno. The total ground plan’s dimensions are 39,32 x 22,58 metres, total height of the building in the highest point is 10,29 metres. The object is three-storey building with rectangular plan with partial basement designed as cast-in-place concrete frame and two above-ground floor designed as reinforced concrete walls and masonry walls. Load-bearing floor structures are designed as reinforced concrete slabs. Drawing documentation is included.

The current design procedure for steel frame structures is a two-step process including an elastic analysis to determine design actions and a separate member capacity check. This design procedure is unable to trace the full range of load-deflection response and hence the failure modes of the frame structures can not be accurately predicted. In recent years, the development of advanced analysis methods has aimed at solving this problem by combining the analysis and design tasks into one step. Application of the new advanced analysis methods permits a comprehensive assessment of the actual failure modes and ultimate strengths of structural steel systems in practical design situations. One of the advanced analysis methods, the refined plastic hinge method, has shown great potential to become a practical design tool. However, at present, it is only suitable for a special class of steel frame structures that is not subject to lateral torsional buckling effects. The refined plastic hinge analysis can directly account for three types of frame failures, gradual formation of plastic hinges, column buckling and local buckling. However, this precludes most of the steel frame structures whose behaviour is governed by lateral torsional buckling. Therefore, the aim of this research is to develop a practical advanced analysis method suitable for general steel frame structures including the effects of lateral-torsional buckling. Lateral torsional buckling is a complex three dimensional instability phenomenon. Unlike the in-plane buckling of beam-columns, a closed form analytical solution is not available for lateral torsional buckling. The member capacity equations used in design specifications are derived mainly from testing of simply supported beams. Further, there has been very limited research into the behaviour and design of steel frame structures subject to lateral torsional buckling failures. Therefore in order to incorporate lateral torsional buckling effects into an advanced analysis method, a detailed study must be carried out including inelastic beam buckling failures. This thesis contains a detailed description of research on extending the scope of advanced analysis by developing methods that include the effects of lateral torsional buckling in a nonlinear analysis formulation. It has two components. Firstly, distributed plasticity models were developed using the state-of-the-art finite element analysis programs for a range of simply supported beams and rigid frame structures to investigate and fully understand their lateral torsional buckling behavioural characteristics. Nonlinear analyses were conducted to study the load-deflection response of these structures under lateral torsional buckling influences. It was found that the behaviour of simply supported beams and members in rigid frame structures is significantly different. In real frame structures, the connection details are a decisive factor in terms of ultimate frame capacities. Accounting for the connection rigidities in a simplified advanced analysis method is very difficult, but is most critical. Generally, the finite element analysis results of simply supported beams agree very well with the predictions of the current Australian steel structures design code AS4100, but the capacities of rigid frame structures can be significantly higher compared with Australian code predictions. The second part of the thesis concerns the development of a two dimensional refined plastic hinge analysis which is capable of considering lateral torsional buckling effects. The formulation of the new method is based on the observations from the distributed plasticity analyses of both simply supported beams and rigid frame structures. The lateral torsional buckling effects are taken into account implicitly using a flexural stiffness reduction factor in the stiffness matrix formulation based on the member capacities specified by AS4100. Due to the lack of suitable alternatives, concepts of moment modification and effective length factors are still used for determining the member capacities. The effects of connection rigidities and restraints from adjacent members are handled by using appropriate effective length factors in the analysis. Compared with the benchmark solutions for simply supported beams, the new refined plastic hinge analysis is very accurate. For rigid frame structures, the new method is generally more conservative than the finite element models. The accuracy of the new method relies on the user's judgement of beam segment restraints. Overall, the design capacities in the new method are superior to those in the current design procedure, especially for frame structures with less slender members. The new refined plastic hinge analysis is now able to capture four types of failure modes, plastic hinge formation, column buckling, local buckling and lateral torsional buckling. With the inclusion of lateral torsional buckling mode as proposed in this thesis, advanced analysis is one step closer to being used for general design practice.

The turbulent nature of the wind flow coupled with additional turbulence created by the wind-building interaction result in highly non-uniform, fluctuating wind-loading on building envelopes. This is true even for simple rectangular symmetric buildings. Building codes and standards should reflect the information on which they are based as closely as possible, and this should be achieved without making the building codes too complicated and/or bulky. However, given the complexity of wind loading on low-rise buildings, its codification can be difficult, and it often entails significant inconsistencies. This required the development of alternative design methods, such as the Database-Assisted-Design (DAD) methodology, that can produce more accurate and risk-consistent estimates of wind loads or their effects. In this dissertation, the DAD methodology for rigid-structures has been further developed into a design tool capable of automatically helping to size member cross sections that closely meet codified strength and serviceability requirements. This was achieved by the integration of the wind engineering and structural engineering phases of designing for wind and gravity loads. Results obtained using this method showed DAD’s potential for practical use in structural design. Different methods of synthesizing aerodynamic and climatological data were investigated, and the effects of internal pressure in structural design were also studied in the context of DAD. This dissertation also addressed the issues of (i) insufficiently comprehensive aerodynamic databases for various types of building shapes, and (ii) the large volume (in size) of existing aerodynamic databases, that can significantly affect the extent to which the DAD methodology is used in engineering practice. This research is part of an initiative to renew the way we evaluate wind loads and perform designs. It is transformative insofar as it enables designs that are safe and economical owing to the risk-consistency inherent in DAD, meaning that enough structural muscle is provided to assure safe behavior, while fat is automatically eliminated in the interest of economy and CO2 footprint reduction.

Traditionally, joints are assumed to be either pinned or fully rigid, but in reality, many behave between these two extremes giving them a semi-rigid classification. By acknowledging the semi-rigidity of nominal pin joints, steel frames can be designed as semi-continuous in which the beam bending moments are partially transmitted to the column members and the need for lateral bracing is eliminated, thus reducing material and construction costs. This thesis presents the results of numerical and theoretical studies of the behaviour of bolted endplate connections to Rectangular Hollow Section (RHS) columns using flowdrill bolts and their applications in semi-continuous frame design. Such connections exhibit significant levels of initial stiffness, strength, and deformation capacity while being more cost-effective than fully welded connections. Despite this, there is limited theoretical work carried out that allows such connections to be designed using analytical methods. In addition, there are no standardised connection design tables like that for open section columns (SCI, 1995), thereby inhibiting their adoption in practice. In this thesis, newly derived equations for initial stiffness that have a greatly improved range of validity and accuracy over existing equations are presented. Equations for bending strength of a newly derived elliptical mechanism based on yield line theory and for membrane action based on internal work principles are given. Equations for flowdrill thread stripping due to gross deformation of the RHS face are also presented thus allowing prediction of all common RHS face failure mechanisms. Equations for deformation capacity are derived thus making it possible to predict the full load-deflection behaviour of the RHS face in tension component. When combined with existing equations for bolt and endplate components, it is possible to predict the full moment-rotation behaviour of bolted endplate connections to RHS columns. Extensive parametric studies using finite element analysis (FEA) as well as validation against existing tests show that the newly derived equations can accurately predict the component-level and whole joint behaviour for a wide range of configurations. Taking advantage of the initial stiffness properties that these connections offer, a parametric study is conducted to show that connections with relatively simple detailing can offer sufficient initial stiffness and strength to enable unbraced semi-continuous design of low-rise steel frames. A hand calculation method for SLS sway in semi-continuous frames is also presented thus allowing the designer to readily carry out scheme designs without advanced software knowledge. A systematic method for the detailing of these connections for use in unbraced frame design is presented to facilitate adoption in practice.

The diploma thesis deals with construction technological project of Central zone technology park in Brno. The thesis involves engineering report, coordinate situation, time and financial plan, study of the main technological stages, project of site equipment, design of machine formativ, time schedule, itemized budget with bill of quantities, technological prescription of monolithic reinforced concrete frame, kontrol and test plan, sefety and health care policy and structural details.