CURRENT SITUATION IN MEDITERRANEAN GREENHOUSES AND A STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS EXAMPLE (MERSIN PROVINCE)

Greenhouse cultivation is one of the most important income generating branches of agriculture. Nowadays, computer softwares are used for anything as it is being used for planning greenhouses, more robust construction and economical results are obtained this way. Business owners, who investing their money in greenhouses, are copying the structural features of existing greenhouses with all wrong calculated parameters and errors. Leaving their valuable cash and future of their investment in the hands of an iron-smith. As a result, the greenhouses which are built without static and strength calculations, more materials are used, or insecure constructions are being applied. When an economic loss occurs depending on structural damage it will unavoidably lead to economic losses for farmers and implicitly for the country. This study, contains emphasises on the structural analyses of a two-span gothic roofed plastic covered greenhouse, having an area of 900 m2 located in Mersin province. Structural analysis of the greenhouse was made with SAP2000 program. Mechanical properties of steel used in gothic roofs, plastic covered greenhouse's, theoretical load calculations are made depending on the TS 498 and TS EN 13031-1 Turkish standards.Variable loads on the greenhouse are calculated as distributed loads with classical methods by analyzing the gothic roofed plastic covered greenhouse according to load combinations (wind, plant, fixed) with SAP2000 program