الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The conventional procedure for the study and analysis of space frame structures assumes that the members of the structure are geometrically perfect Also the procedure assumes that the joints of the space structures behave as they are either pure pins or fully rigid. These assumptions are adopted in the analysis of space frame structures, They usually applied despite the fact that the members may suffer from geometric imperfections, also most joints of these structures in reality are semi-rigid. Initial geometric imperfections and the actual behavior of joints of space structures can have significant effects on the behavior of such structures In this thesis, an analytical model is presented, that incorporates - in addition to the effect of axial force and bowing - the effect of both member geometric imperfections arid joint characteristics. These effects are directly incorporated in the equilibrium equations that describe the spatial behavior of beam-columns. Differentiating these equations with respect to deformations leads to the so-called general tangent stiffness matrix of space frame member. The presented analytical model obtained has been incorporated in a computer program for the geometrically nonlinear analysis of space frames The author has modifled this computer program to incorporate the previous effects This program is used to analyze and study the stability of some numerical examples of plane and space structures to show the effect of geometric imperfections and the actual joint behavior. The results of a series of tests, conducted on plane and space structures containing joint characteristics and members with geometric imperfections are reported.