Theoretical And Experimental Research Of Kiewitt Domes

The cable dome structure is a class of flexible structures which is mainly composed of cables in tension and struts in compression and must be prestressed to provide the structural stiffness. The existing two styles of cable domes are Geiger style and Levy style, whose representational projects are 1988's Seoul Olympics stadium and 1996's Atlanta Olympics stadium respectively. Based on the character, geometry and bearing mechanism of the structure, a new type of cable domes-Kiewitt Dome is proposed and studied by theory and experiment concluding the overall selfstress modes analysis, the prestress optimal design, the nonlinear behavior under the loads and construction analysis. At last a model is designed and tested to make sure of the preceding theory.The history and the advance of the cable dome are briefly introduced firstly, the background of this thesis is then pointed out and the main contents are put forward.Followed review of the limitation of existing methods for solving the prestress of cable-strut tensile structures a new method is proposed to solve the overall selfstress modes of cable domes by using the method of singular value decomposition on the base of equilibrium matrix theory and considering the symmetry and total feasible of the structure. This method not only solves the single overall selfstress mode of Geiger and Levy cable domes but also solve the multi overall selfstress modes of Kiewitt cable domes and other space cable-truss structures. At the same time the node equilibrium theory is used to determine the redundant order of the structure. It shows the number of the overall selfstress modes is equal to the redundant order of the structure after considering the symmetry of the structure and increases regularly with the increase of the hoop number.Taking the minimum initial-strain energy of structure as the objective function, optimal prestress design of structures with multi-overall selfstress modes is investigated by the nonlinear programming algorithm. At the same time optimal section design is carried out by the tooth method. Numerical results show the optimal initial prestress distribution reaches limit state by some cables slack and optimal section design makes most elements reach full stress state under certain load condition. The nonlinear finite element method and iterative strategy is used to modify the real prestress distribution after considering the gravity of the structure.The nonlinear finite element method is applied to study the static behavior of the structure under the symmetrical and unsymmetrical load. The structural properties are discussed in detail while some...