Elastoplastic large deformation analysis of a lattice steel tower structure and comparison with full-scale tests

The objective of this paper is to develop a numerical model for simulating ultimate behavior of lattice steel tower structures. We present the elastoplastic large deformation analysis of a lattice steel tower structure using finite element analysis and we compare the numerical results with full-scale destructive tests. A 2-node three-dimensional L-section beam finite element proposed in our previous work is used. The beam finite element can consider eccentricities of loading and boundary conditions as well as material and geometrical nonlinearities. We model a real tower structure section using the beam elements and perform a nonlinear static analysis to obtain the limit behavior of the tower in two different load cases. The numerical results are discussed in detail.