Research on Bending Stiffness of the New Sprayer Joint

The socket joint are commonly employed in large-span spatial structures; however, its bending stiffness is limited. Based on the socket joint, this paper proposes an improved and novel sprayer joint that features a more rational force transmission mechanism and have larger bending stiffness. Firstly, the joint is designed, followed by verification of numerical model and bending stiffness comparison with socket joint. Secondly, the bending performance of the sprayer joints with various surrounding bolt radii under load conditions is investigated, and the resulting bending moment-rotation curves are obtained. The research findings demonstrate that the force transmission mechanism of the sprayer joint with larger bending stiffness is more rational. When the surrounding bolt radius is excessively small or the axial tension is excessively high, the bolt prematurely yields, leading to a significant decrease in joint stiffness. Despite a mere 15% increase in material cost, the bending stiffness of the new joint is 21.71 times higher than that of the traditional socket joint, and the ultimate bending moment is 5.42 times higher.