NONLINEAR ANALYSIS AND FIELD TEST VERIFICATION OF STEEL TUBULAR SCAFFOLDS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

In order to investigate the mechanic properties of steel tubular scaffold (STC), a nonlinear numerical analysis model of the STC based on the beam-column method considering the second-order effect and the nonlinear semi-rigid connection was proposed. Meanwhile, the efficiency and applicability of the presented method was validated by comparing with the results of the field test for the STCs. Finally, the internal forces and the displacements of the STC varying with some parameters (e.g. span of the vertical poles, story height, horizontal load) was studied with the proposed model. The results showed that the proposed model was of high accuracy, since the results produced by the proposed model were well agreement with that of the field test. Furthermore, the mechanic properties of the STC with small ratio of height to width was not influenced by coupling of the second-order effect and the nonlinear semi-rigid connection, and the mechanic properties of the STC with large ratio of height to width was not affected by the nonlinear semi-rigid connection.