Warren Truss : All You Need to Know

In this article, we are going to talk about warren truss, warren truss design, warren truss advantages, and disadvantages.

Warren Truss Definition

Warren truss is a quite popular structure of truss design and can be identified with ease due to the fact that it’s constructed from triangles that are equilateral.

Warren truss design has the capacity to spread the load across a number of members that are different. This load is spread evenly throughout the warren trusses. This also creates, however, a problem. The structure of the warren type truss also then undergoes under a point load, a lot of force that is concentrated. If these loads are concentrated, then in this scenario, the weight is not spread across evenly. This is why a warren type truss bridge is more useful for loads that are or can be spanned. On the other hand, the warren truss is not suitable in the situation where the concentrated load is at a single point or node.

Now, let us take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of warren truss bridges

Warren Truss Advantages And Disadvantages

Advantages Of Warren Truss

1. It has the ability to spread the load fairly in an even manner between the members of the truss
2. It has a fairly simple warren type trusses design and therefore, it is not that complicated to deal with
3. The warren type truss bridge makes use of triangles that are ridged and therefore, this makes it extremely strong
4. The warren truss bridges do not require a large amount of material to be built or constructed. In comparison to other bridge designs, it has been found that the warren trusses bridge does not require a hefty amount of material

Disadvantages Of Warren Truss

1. If the load over the warren type truss is concentrated, then the performance of the truss is very poor.
2. Due to the presence of additional members, there is an increased constructability.

Warren Truss Design

This bridge is composed of triangles that are equilateral and limit the force of the load to the compression and tension points of the warren type truss bridge. There are different types of warren trusses designs. These are:

1. Subdivided warren truss bridge

Here, if the vertical part of the warren type truss bridge is not stiff enough, engineers sometimes make changes and add vertical beams that divide each triangle at the center. This helps in preventing the bridge from buckling up in the center due to the huge amount of pressure.

2. Double warren truss bridge

This type of bridge consists of triangle parts that are intersecting and therefore, give out an appearance to look like diamond shapes.Â

3. Quadrangular warren truss bridge

This consists of a number of diagonal ridges, and these ridges give out a netted appearance.

The design of bridges like this bridges totally relies on the availability of machinery, and the cost of labor, and the materials to be used. These bridges usually span around in the length of like 400 feet.