Static and kinematic behaviour of a foldable truss roof structure

In this paper, a type of foldable truss structure formed by four-bar linkages is firstly proposed as a retractable roof. Then the mechanical behavior of a fully closed roof system is studied. The results show that the member buckling has a great effect on the ultimate capacity of foldable truss structures. The failure load of the structure is smaller if buckling is considered. It is also found that the effect of imperfections on the failure load of the foldable structure is not significant. Furthermore, the stress variation during the folding is small. However, when initial imperfections are introduced, the maximal member stress during the motion increases greatly, which is almost close to yield stress.