Altzairu-egur petral hibridoen optimizazioa: Optimisation of Hybrid Steel and Wood Purlins

Abstract

A new structural typology of a hybrid purlin, made of type C cold steel and rectangular laminated wood (steel-wood purlins, SWP) is presented in this paper. As a result, improvements on the most commonly used steel purlins are achieved, by reinforcing wood purling with steel sections in certain zones. Although the wooden section is weaker and has a lower elastic modulus than the steel, the overall dimensions of the SWP are no larger than the type C steel purlin. In comparison with the steel ones, SWP purlins achieve a far better performance in terms of sustainability and are of lower weight, so less material will be needed for the main structure of the building. The behaviour of each material in its position and the improvements in terms of sustainability and lower weight are analysed as a function of span length and design load. To do so, the influence of both tensile stress and deformation design criteria in each section and the influence of those criteria on the choice of material and the lengths of each section are all examined. An analytical approach has been used in the design of the SWPs which fulfils the technical requirements.