Parametric Study on Cable-Stayed and Knee-Braced Steel Portal Frames

To improve wind resistance capacity of cable-braced steel portal frames,a double-braced portal frame was proposed by adding two pre-stressed knee braces to a cable-braced portal frame. To study the reasonable range of application and method of cable parameter determination for this novel structure,the influences of load condition, span, base constraint, and cable parameters on structural performance were investigated by using the finite element code SAP2000. The results show that pre-stressed knee braces can effectively resist both uplifted and lateral wind loads,so this cablestayed and knee-braced steel portal frame is suitable for large wind.When the vertical load is comparable with the wind load,this novel type of portal frames is suitable for a medium span( 21-48 m). The cables in the cable brace can be determined by structural vertical stiffness,and the cables in the knee brace can be designed as the same as those in the cable-stayed part for the reason that their cross sectional area has only a weak effect on the structure. If no cable fails,the pretension variation of the cable does not affect the stiffness of the portal frame. The cable in the cable brace,working together with the cables in the knee braces,can ease uneven distribution of internal force,and their pretensions can be determined according to actual engineering projects.