Deformation prediction of large-span spatial structure considering adverse weather conditions

Abstract

For exposed large-span spatial structures affected by solar radiation, the temperature field of the structure is time-varying and non-uniform. Currently, the research on the transient temperature field of the structure is based on the ideal sunny day, and the impact of adverse weather is usually not considered. Such simplification leads to inaccurate prediction results of temperature deformation of steel structures, especially during the construction process of the steel structure, when the structural deformation prediction needs to be employed to control the structural spatial configuration after completion. In this paper, a new method is proposed to predict the time-varying and non-uniform temperature field of large-span spatial structures using the limited information of weather forecasts. A large-span steel truss structure with inclined leg is employed to illustrate and discuss the parameters of the daily temperature model, and the temperature field of the structure under different weather conditions is calculated using a simulation program based on MATLAB and ANSYS. Finally, the accuracy of the simulation results is verified by the monitored data. The results show that the optimized daily temperature model is well predicted for the actual temperature change under different weather conditions. The structure temperature field and effect of different weather conditions have observable differences and the weather factors cannot be ignored. When the structural member reaches the highest temperature afternoon, all the temperature difference of the member exceeds 20% under different weather conditions.