General Information

Figure 1 shows a freestanding steel carport.

The steel structure consists mainly of two columns, transverse- and longitudinal trusses, a tie beam, roof cross-braces, stay cables, purlins, an anti-bird net structure, and metal roofing sheets. The columns, trusses, purlins, tie beam, and the beams for the anti-bird net support are made of circular hollow sections, while the stay cables and roof cross-braces are made of steel wire ropes.

Carport Structure

Figure 2 shows the carport.

The length l ≅ 5 m, and the width w ≅ 4 m. The longitudinal truss (red background) is installed over the free-ends of the transverse trusses (yellow background) and braced by two diagonals that are connected to the upper chords of the transverse trusses; the longitudinal truss height h ≅ 0.5 m. Figure 3 shows a lateral view of the carport.

The transverse trusses are approximately tapered toward the carport entrance; the upper chords are curved, while the metal sheets have a constant slope. Figure 4 shows a bottom view of a roof unit.

There are four metal sheet supports (marked by the numbers) with a non-constant spacing. Support 1 is the longitudinal truss, while supports 2 to 4 are the purlins, which are installed over and between the upper chords. A and B are the beams for the anti-bird net support, while the yellow dashed lines mark the roof cross-braces, which are connected to the columns as shown in figure 5.

The connection consists of a turnbuckle and a U-bar, which is welded to the column; the wire rope termination consists of a U-bolt clamp. The stay cables are connected to the transverse trusses as shown in figure 6.

The connection consists of a turnbuckle, an additional cable, and a single-hole plate welded to the upper chord (away from a truss node); each cable is terminated with a U-bolt clamp. Figure 7 shows a schematic three-dimensional view of the used carport and an alternative variant.

The steel structure of the alternative variant consists mainly of two Y-frames, purlins, and metal roofing sheets. The Y-frames are made of I-sections (standard and haunched), while the purlins are made of lipped channels. Both variants have the same external geometry.