Static analysis of thin-walled space frame structures with arbitrary closed cross-sections using transfer matrix method

This paper develops a new transfer matrix method for the static analysis of thin-walled space frame structures with arbitrary closed single-cell sections, that is, thin-walled beam transfer matrix method (TBTMM), which expands the advantages of the general transfer matrix method (TMM). In this method, the bimoment B and the rate of twist of the beam φ(x) are taken into account based on the Vlasov's beam theory and Kollbrunner-Hajdin assumption, and the bending and twisting can be calculated separately combined with the characteristic of Maillart's shear center. Using this method, the transfer matrix of single beam is obtained through Laplace transform and inverse Laplace transform at first, and then gets the coupling equations of the whole structure with respect to coordinate transformation matrices and joint coupling matrices. Some numerical examples are given and compared with the general TMM and the finite element method (B-FEM and S-FEM) results to validate the developed method.