Design and construction of a temporary structure composed by FRP pultruded profiles

A temporary FRP modular structure was designed for an expo fair stand to be erected in the campus of Tor Vergata Rome University. GFRP “on the shelf” pultruded profiles were adopted. The structure is constituted by 6 /12 meter truss beams connected to columns with pin joint constraints. The beam module is represented by a king-post truss structure having 6 meter span and self weight of about 1 kN. Chords and web element of each module are built-up members composed by two back-to-back angle- and C-shaped profiles, respectively. Twin profiles are glued together by means of GFRP flat or box lacings. The heel gussets, reinforced by external carbon sheets, provide for a hinged connection between truss beams and columns or possible adjacent moduli. Hence, different plane frame schemes can be easily obtained. In the orthogonal direction, the roof is spanned by 6 meters box-section purlins supporting a PVC tent. Steel strands provide for anchoring and lateral bracing. The paper describes the overall design paying attention to load conditions, (finite element) structural analysis, ULS member verification and construction detail