Effect of Member Snap on Space Truss Collapse

A procedure is presented for the ultimate‐capacity analysis of space trusses whose members have either buckled or yielded. Unlike previous analyses, which carry out a static analysis to account for member postbuckling behavior, the possibility of a dynamic response due to snap‐through behavior of buckled struts is considered. Whether a dynamic response does occur depends on the stiffness of the degraded space truss vis‐à‐vis the negative member postbuckling stiffness. Studies of a simple truss model and a large double‐layer space truss indicate that neglect of the dynamic response due to member snap‐through leads to a significant overestimate of the structure's capacity.