Formex configuration processing for a multi-layered long span aircraft hangar

Abstract

With the availability of fast computers and powerful packages to match, stress analysis of complex structures, such as a Multi-Layered Long Span Aircraft Hangar described in this paper, for multiple loading conditions, is no longer a problem. But preprocessing of input data continues to be a tedious, time-consuming chore. It is here that formex algebra and its programming language Formian provided a breakthrough. The paper demonstrates the power of these tools in generating the topology of a triple layered space frame and its five-layered front girder in a few pages of text.