Appraisal of deployable dome structures under wind loading

Abstract

In this paper the appraisal of a folding dome structure under the influence of wind loading is discussed. The foldable structure considered is constructed from an assembly of interconnected elements, together with a flexible membrane, all of which are initially stored in a compact form and on deployment expand, like an umbrella, into a dome structure. Loading on the dome was obtained from a wind tunnel analysis of the pressure distribution over the roof of a 1:10 scale model of the structure. The critical loading obtained from the wind tunnel investigation was used, together with individual member and material tests, to form a series of numerical non-linear finite element models which were, in turn, used to investigate the forces within the structure. The numerical analysis was used to determine the critical wind loading that the structure can sustain, as well as providing a method by which to investigate the failure modes of the structure. In order to enhance the load carrying capacity of the dome it was found that both the strength and stiffnesss of the structural nodes needed to be enhanced and in addition, changes were necessary to substantially increase the stiffness of the individual member end caps.