About STENT project

A comprehensive understanding of the behaviour of steel-reinforced aluminium tent structures is fundamental to the efficient and environmentally sustainable design of lightweight structures intended for specialised applications, ranging from temporary installations to permanent facilities. Although aluminium alloys are widely recognised as advanced structural materials, aluminium is characterised by relatively low strength and high deformability, which often necessitates reinforcement in critical regions. Owing to the limited scientific knowledge of the complex behaviour of steel-reinforced aluminium structures, structural design is frequently based on conservative assumptions, which may result in non-uniform reliability of such tent structures.

By integrating the complementary knowledge and expertise of the project team, the STENT project seeks to develop and implement innovative experimental methods and numerical modelling techniques for investigating the behaviour of these complex structural components and systems. The scientific insights gained into the actual behaviour of steel-reinforced aluminium structural systems will provide the basis for the development of a rational design methodology for tent structures, ensuring a more uniform level of reliability and a reduced environmental impact.

The project aims to develop and implement innovative methods, techniques, and tools for the modelling and testing of steel-reinforced aluminium structures by integrating the knowledge and expertise of the project team members with that of domestic and international advisors from both academia and industry. In particular, the research will employ advanced numerical simulations using ABAQUS, complemented by laboratory testing supported by innovative systems for data acquisition and processing, including 3D scanning and digital image correlation (DIC) for the optical measurement of deformations and displacements.

The proposed scientific research will combine analytical, experimental, and numerical methods and will be carried out through the following six phases:

1. Literature review
2. Analysis of the existing experimental results
3. Development and calibration of numerical models
4. Implementation of additional experimental investigations
5. Numerical parametric analyses
6. Discussion of results and formulation of conclusions

The absence of systematic studies on steel-reinforced aluminium structural components, including both members and joints, as well as on the load-bearing systems of tent structures, underscores the innovative character of the proposed research. To date, the project team has already conducted investigations on steel-reinforced aluminium joints, and preliminary analyses of prefabricated aluminium tent hall structures have been performed. These results will provide the foundation for the first two phases of the project, namely the review of the research field and the analysis of existing experimental data. Ongoing research within the REAL-fit project constitutes an additional scientific basis that will be further extended to include steel reinforcements.

Based on the data collected during the initial phases of the project, and in cooperation with the industrial partner Haltor d.o.o. as well as through consultations with external collaborators, the concept for the experimental investigation will be developed and preliminary numerical models will be established. The experimental research will include testing several types of steel-reinforced aluminium structural members and joints and will provide the basis for the development of calibrated numerical models. Subsequent numerical parametric analyses will further expand the database of results and generate sufficient information for simulating the behaviour of the load-bearing tent structural system.

The expected original scientific contributions of the proposed research include the development of nonlinear finite element models validated on the basis of laboratory tests, the identification and characterisation of local and global failure mechanisms, and the formulation of a methodology for the design and optimisation of steel-reinforced aluminium structural systems.