FINITE ELEMENT PREDICTION OF THE BEHAVIOR OF PROFILED STEEL SHEET DRY BOARD FOLDED PLATE STRUCTURES AN IMPROVED MODEL (RESEARCH NOTE)

This paper describes an alternative finite element model that would yield more accurate results in the prediction of the behavior of Profiled Steel Sheet Dry Board (PSSDB) folded plate structures, which can be considered as an improvement of an earlier proposed model. The PSSDB folded plate structures are being proposed as an alternative to traditional forms of roof construction.The PSSDB system is an innovative composite structural system initially envisaged by Wright and Evans. It consists of profiled steel sheeting connected to dry board by simple self-drilling and self-tapping screws. The folded plate roof model under study incorporates individual PSSDB panel assembled and connected to each other by ridge connection plates. Full-scale model of 6-meter span was tested in the laboratory to confirm theoretical models proposed by the authors. The earlier reported model was based on an orthotropic idealization of the profiled steel sheet, and two directional ‘dummy’ plate element in modeling the connection between profiled steel sheet and dry board; a model that has been concluded to be giving good and reasonably accurate results. However,the accuracy of the predicted results could be improved by modeling the profiled steel sheet as an isotropic plate element, and utilizing ‘joint’ element instead of the ‘dummy’ plate element to modelthe connections involved in the PSDDB folded plate structures. This is the focus of this paper. Results found from the newly proposed model generally over-estimated the experimental results, and arewithin 34% of the experimental model.