International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 8, Issue 1, January-2017

ISSN 2229-5518

Finite Element Analysis of a 2D Truss Using

MATLAB and OpenSees
First Author, Second Author, Third Author

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1 INTRODUCTION

T RUSS is a solid structure that consists of triangular ele-

ments. Here, the members are connected at their ends via
pin joints. The forces in a truss element are applied only at
3 PROPOSED PLANE TRUSS STRUCTURE
joints. Therefore, they are so-called named two-force mem- Figure 1 shows the sketch of a 2D planar truss. Module of elas-
bers. There are two common types of trusses: plane truss and ticity of in the truss members is 2x10 7 kg/m3. Cross sectional
space truss. Many appalications of trusses found in structural area of for members 1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 16, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25 and 27,
projects e.g. stadium exhibition centers, airplane hangars is 2 cm2. The corresponding value for other members is 4 cm2.
bridges and etc [1]. Light weight, pleasing appearance, high
strength, easy fabrication and rapid erection made truss an
attractive option for both architectures and civil engineerins
[2]. Due to its triangular units, Finite Element Analysis (FEM)
is a suitable tool to study truss performanc.
Nowadays, FEM are common in structural studies and is
widely used to investigate different aspects of structural re-
sponses due to applied loadings. It helps designers to obtain
data about deformity and stress condition of truss beam,
based on its loadings [3].
This study is structured as follows: in the Section 2, the ge- Fig. 1. General sketch of the 2D truss.
omemtry, loadings and other structural specifications of a 2D
planar truss are presented. In Section 3, results are presented
and discussed. First, a MATLAB code is developed and its 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
results for deformation, nodal displacements and reactions are
reported. Then, these results are validated against the results 4.1 MATLAB results
from commercial software SAP2000. In the third subsection,
The main data input to the MATLAB program were joint,
an OpenSees code is developed and its results are compared
support, material property, member and nodal load data. Joint
with MATLAB results.
data of this plane truss consists of the total number of joints
and the global coordinates of each joint. There were eight
2 FINITE ELEMENT METHOD joints in the truss. All inputs are given within a unified Excel
The general procedure for FEM analysis is as follows [4]: file. The position of each joint was specified by means of the
1. Truss is discretized into sufficient smaller members global coordinates of the joint. For truss, the number of degree
2. The nodes and elemnts are numbered in a proper way of freedom of a free joint was two so and the global degree of
3. Definition of cross sectional area of member, modules freedom can be calculated as number of joints 2. In this truss
of elasticity and density of steel structure the number of nodes were 15 therefore total number
4. Calculation of element stiffness matrix of degree of freedoms were 30. The joint numbers and their
5. Assembling of element stiffness matrices into a single corresponding directions of restraints were defined and
matrix stored. Material property data were defined by storing modu-
6. Applying the boundary conditions to avoid singularity lus of elasticity as E. In cross-sectional property data, the
during the solution cross-sectional areas were stored as a variable (Area), External
7. Solution for unknown displacements and forces loading conditions (Ft) and element nodes (nodID) were as-
8. Calculation of strain and stress in each member signed with the specific variables.
Deformed shape of the truss under the present loading is
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 8, Issue 1, January-2017
ISSN 2229-5518

shown in Figure 2. Reactions of the supports in the x direction

for nodes 1 and 15, are 4.2148 and -4.2148. Similarly, 2.8 and
3.5 were obtained for the nodes 1 and 15. Nodal displacements
of the truss are summarized in Table 1.

Fig. 4. Presentation of deformed 2D truss in SAP2000.

4.3 OpenSees
Fig. 2. Presentation of deformed 2D truss in MATLAB. OpenSees is an open source FEM software capable of well per-
forming of the nonlinear analyses of structures, which gained
TABLE 1 high admissibility during recent years. A code for the current
MATLAB RESULTS FOR NODAL DISSPLACEMENTS analysis was developed in OpenSees which is available in the
Node ID x disp. (mm) y disp. (mm) Appendix. Table 2 shows the results from OpenSess. The rela-
1 0 0 tive difference between the results of MATLAB and OpenSees
2 0.14 -7.75 TABLE 2
OPENSEES RESULTS FOR NODAL DISSPLACEMENTS
3 2.42 -6.53
Node ID x disp. x- Rela- y disp. y- Rela-
4 0.12 -10.07 (mm) tive (mm) tive Diff.
5 2.71 -9.14 Diff. (%) (%)
6 3.03 -11.39 1 0 0 0 0
7 2.93 -11.68 2 0.14 0 -7.79 0.52
8 0.47 -9.45 3 2.46 1.65 -6.56 0.46
9 -3.82 -12.69 4 0.12 0 -10.10 0.30
10 -3.16 -13.37 5 2.72 0.37 -9.18 0.44
11 -1.01 -11.58 6 3.07 1.32 -11.48 0.79
12 -3.32 -11.19 7 2.94 0.34 -11.76 0.68
13 -0.67 -9.86 8 0.46 -2.13 -9.47 0.21
14 -3.34 -8.55 9 -3.87 1.31 -12.77 0.63
15 0 0 10 -3.17 0.32 -13.48 0.82
11 -0.98 -2.97 -11.61 0.26
4.2 Validation 12 -3.35 0.90 -11.26 0.63
All numerical analyses must be evaluated against valid re- 13 -0.66 -1.49 -9.91 0.51
sults. This can be done using experiments or equivalently us- 14 -3.32 -0.60 -8.58 0.35
ing the results form other authentic software results. In this 15 0 0 0 0
regard, the above mentioned truss has been modeled in
is presented in the forth column of the table. Besides, reactions
SAP2000 software. Figure 3 shows the deformed shape of the
of the supports in the x direction for nodes 1 and 15, are 4.2315
truss in SAP2000. Reactions of the supports in the x direction
and -4.2315. Similarly, for y direction values of 2.8 and 3.5
for nodes 1 and 15, are 4.21 and -4.21. Similarly, for y direction
were obtained for the nodes 1 and 15. As can be seen, the ob-
values of 2.8 and 3.5 were obtained for the nodes 1 and 15,
tained values for y reactions in MATLAB and OpenSees are
which are completely consistent with MATLAB results (Figure
consistent with each other. However, in the x directions, a
4).
slight difference (about 0.51%) is seen between the predicted
values of the two codes.

5 CONCLUSIONS
In the present, FEM analysis has been performed to study the
deformation of a 2D palanar truss. In this regard, a MATLAB
code has been developed and the values of nodal displace-
ments and support reactions have been reported. Then, the
Fig. 3. Presentation of deformed 2D truss in SAP2000.
obtained results have been validated against the results of a
commercial structural software (SAP2000). It was seen the re-
sults are consistent with each other. In the final section, an
IJSER 2017
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 8, Issue 1, January-2017
ISSN 2229-5518

OpenSees analysis has been performed. For small displace-

ments a maximum of 3% difference is seen. As it rises, the dif-
ferences become less apparent and decreases to less than 1%.
So, it can be can cocluded that the two code results have high
level of consistency.

REFERENCES
[1] P. G. Barhate and K. B. Ladhane, Development of Structural Analy-
sis Program for Truss Structure using MATLAB, International Jour-
nal For Technological Research In Engineering, Vol 3, Issue 9, pp.
2460-2465, May-2016.
[2] H. M. Htay and S. Y. Khaing, Development of Structural Analysis
Programmer for Plane Truss, International Journal of Scientific En-
gineering and Technology Research, Vol 3, Issue 10, pp. 2228-2232,
May-2014.
[3] A. Muminovic, I. Saric, and N. Repcic. "Software for deformity and
stress condition of 2D truss beams analysis." J Stress, Vol 23, pp. 1225-
1226, Jan 2011.
[4] P. Sangeetha, P. Naveen Kumar and R. Senthil. Finite Element
Analysis for Space Truss using MATLAB, ARPN Journal of Engi-
neering and Applied Sciences, Vol. 10, No. 8, pp. 3812-3816, May-
2015.

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