ABSTRACT
Welded trusses made of circular hollow sections can be commonly seen in large span roof structures of buildings. The curved chord members are used sometimes, which causes structural engineers to answer the question how to check the strength of welded truss joints. In the present paper, nine model static tests on circular hollow section joints with curved and straight chord members were carried out. Behavior in failure modes, load-deformation curves, stress distributions and load capacities is compared between joints with curved and straight chord members. All test results are discussed and show that the curved circular chord members do not exert more significant influence upon the behavior of joints, in comparison with the straight chord members. The conclusion is further confirmed through the finite element analysis of a series of joint types. Both the experimental and numerical results indicated that the strength of the joints with curved chords at a wide range of curvature radiuses used in practical engineering can be checked like the joints with straight chords based on the current design specifications.
