DESIGN OF ALUMINIUM STRUCTURES FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY AND ANALYSIS OF THEIR BEHAVIOR IN FIRE CONDITIONS Stefania Arangio, Chiara Crosti, Marco Zampetti Sapienza University of Rome, School of Engineering Rome, Italy E-mail: stefania.arangio@uniroma1.it, chiara.crosti@uniroma1.it, marcozampetti@gmail.com 1. ABSTRACT Aluminium alloys are often used for temporary structures in the entertainment industry, such as temporary staging, towers or trusses for roof structures. For this kind of applications the structural elements are designed taking into account various aspects related to both the material properties and the temporary use, which are discussed in the first part of this paper. In the second part, the behavior of such structures exposed to fire is considered. A truss beam is analyzed considering the following scenario: during the construction phase, the truss elements are lifted using appropriate rigging equipments (chains, hooks, slings, etc.); usually the slings are made of polyester and, after lifting, are left on the truss. This material is very inflammable, so the possibility that the slings goes up in flames is considered; the behavior of the structure exposed to elevated temperature is analyzed and the structural safety is assessed. 2. INTRODUCTION In recent years, the use of aluminium as a construction material has been increasing. Aluminium structures are widely used for trusses and towers of temporary structures in the entertainment industry. The early trusses, in the 1970s, were manufactured from steel and aluminium; however steel was not favored because of its weight and its tendency to corrode. Aluminium trusses were preferred as each truss could be easily lifted by one or two people and was not prone to rust [1]. Moreover, the possibility to extrude sections provided the possibility to design easily various types of sections. In the past, these kind of structures tended to be erected without proper consultation with the statutory authorities or professional structural engineers, but various projects, even if of temporary nature, showed that the design of this kind of structures includes a variety of factors, involving experts from several disciplines. Nowadays various regulations have been issued which consider several technical aspects as structural design, lifting, and use (see for example Eurocode 9 [2], the Standards issued by the British Standards Association [3,4,5], the US Standards [6,7]).