Reliability Study on Simply Supported Purlins with Sheeting Under Typhoon Hazards

In purlin-sheeting systems, the sheeting is commonly connected to the upper flange of purlins by screw connectors. The buckling behaviour of purlins are improved by the diaphragm effects provided by the sheeting, and this effect is considered in the current design codes for calculating the buckling capacity of a purlin. However, the diagraph effect may be reduced by the damaged connectors resulted from the wind-induced fatigue effect in typhoon hazards, and in this case the buckling capacity of a purlin restrained by sheeting is inevitably decreased. Therefore, the condition assessment for purlin-sheeting systems is of great importance. This paper presents a framework for time-dependent reliability study of purlin-sheeting systems during their service life suffering hurricane hazards. The degradation effects were considered in the resistance model of purlins. On the basis of the proposed framework, the reliability analysis of purlins was presented with respect to different locations in the purlin-sheeting systems. This study provides a basis for the design and evaluation of the purlin-sheeting systems in the cyclonic regions.