Theoretical And Experimental Research Of Rectangular Cable Dome

Cable dome is a structure composed of struts in compression and cables in tension, which exerts the cables' high strength property. Besides, it takes membrane as covering material and has merits such as light weight, large span and free shape of structure. So it is integrated with new material, new technology, new craftwork and high efficiency and then it is considered as the highest-level structure in the world now. Today the existing two styles of cable domes are Geiger style and Levy style. But all the Geiger style cable domes focus on the circular structures, while few literatures about rectangular cable domes have been reported. In this thesis, systematic study of rectangular cable domes is carried out, which includes the distribution of prestress, solution of structure mechanic displacement, construction method, static and dynamic property of the structure, cooperative studies on cable-strut-membrane, and experiments of the structure model.Firstly, based on reading many specialty literatures, the history of development and several projects as well as current research on cable dome are introduced. Then the major research contents of this thesis are presented.The deformation compatible equation based on the catenary cable element is derived in chapter 2, and corresponding program is made to solve the accurate distribution of the prestress for cable dome. During the solving, two-nodes bar elements and catenary elements are adopted for the struts and cables of structure respectively. As the cable dome is a kinematically indeterminate system, its solving process is also derived in detail and the equations, which are based on large distortion, are adopted to solve the problem.After considering the structure symmetry and the feasibility of prestress, a rectangular Geiger dome usually has one self-stress mode. For a structure system, which has one self-stress mode, simple calculation method for initial prestress distribution can be presented. The calculation equations of prestress distribution of rectangular Geiger dome are derived in chapter 3.Construction method is one of the key and difficult problems for cable domes all the time. In chapter 4, several construction methods for circular and rectangular cable domes are discussed and studied in detail. And the construction processes of the cable dome are traced and simulated. Then the construction methods for only pulling the outset circle diagonal cables, the outset circle hoop cables and other members are proposed.In chapter 5, firstly, the force bearing calculation of cable-strut of rectangular cable domes under full-span load and half-span load is made. Secondly, the effect of structure prestress change on the performance of force bearing is analyzed. Then the static property of the rectangular cable domes is compared with that of the circular Geiger cable domes. Finally, dynamic property of the cable domes is investigated.In chapter 6, the cooperative analysis on cable-strut-membrane structures of rectangular cable dome is made. And the cooperative form-finding of cable-strut-membrane structures of the cable dome is studied. The load is applied on the equilibrium model after form-finding, and then the mechanics property of the cable-strut-membrane system under full-span load and half-span load is considered.A rectangular cable dome model with the size of 4.7m><3.4m is designed and fabricated. Then experiments on the model are made, including the prestress applying, loading experiments of several conditions, measuring of the natural frequencies and validating of several construction schemes.Finally, all the achievements accomplished are summarized and some problems for future study are proposed.