An optimal design tool for welded rectangular hollow sections joint using MS-excel

Abstract

This report is to describe an optimal design tool used in the design of rectangular hollow section truss where RHSs are loaded by both axial forces and in-plane moments. Using MS-Excel programme as the implementation platform, with the combination of a simple spreadsheet design tool developed in a previous final year project, this design tool allows users to select a nearly optimized combination of sections for the construction of the RHS joints. Compared to existing spreadsheet, there are four major functions developed to make the design process more flexible and user-oriented: the design of in-plane internal moment, force and moment equilibrium check, auto filter mechanism and multiple selection tools. These additional functions will be discussed in details in following chapters. Despite from the differences of technical part between existing spreadsheet and the latest one, their aims are in common, which are to make the design process interactive and enable engineers to design the joints more quickly by simply entering the loadings and certain parameters compared to carrying out large amount of calculations using conventional method. After going through the design process, the author also provides some suggestions on further improvement of the design tool to make it more convenient to use and powerful in carrying out the design work.