Economical comparison of steel-framed greenhouse systems

Since greenhouses are highly expensive structures, they need to be designed carefully with the use of modern technology of the day. Especially in the design of high-cost steel-framed greenhouses, the number of which is increasing day by day, system selection and dimensioning play an important role in economical design of load-bearing members. The present thesis was conducted to investigate the effects of two different roof types, commonly preferred in construction of steel-framed greenhouses of Türkiye, different truss spans and truss spacings on greenhouse construction costs. For present analyses, 12 different systems, including 2.5 m and 3 m truss spacing, 6 m, 8 m and 9.6 m truss spans of gable and gothic-style roofs were generated. The width, length and height of the designed greenhouses were taken as 48 m, 60 m and 4.5 m, respectively. Greenhouse design was made considering that tomatoes and cucumbers will be grown under climate conditions of Tokat province. The design options with different possibilities, whose preliminary design and planning were made, were defined and graphically modeled in the SAP2000 software, which is a static analysis software, in accordance with the relevant regulations and standards and greenhouse load bearing systems were analyzed with the use of finite element method. Technical drawings were made in the AutoCAD software. For cost analyses, footage data obtained through performed analyzes and designs and unit-price data obtained from the relevant item number of the 2022/3 Construction and Installation Unit Prices Book were edited on MS EXCEL worksheets. Different greenhouse systems were compared economically and the greenhouse with a gothic roof style, 9.6 m truss span and 3 m truss spacing was identified as the most economical system.