• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.309-320
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• 2011

As a new type of large-span space structure, suspendome is composited of the upper single-layer reticulated shell and the lower cable-strut system. It has better mechanical properties compared to single-layer reticulated shell, and the overall stiffness of suspendome structure increases greatly due to the prestress of cable. Consequently, it can cross a larger span reasonably, economically and grandly with high rigidity, good stability and simple construction. For a better assessment of the advantages of mechanical characteristic of suspendome quantitatively, the static behavior of Kiewitt6 suspendome was studied by using finite element method, and ADINA was the software application to implement the analysis. By studying a certain suspendome, the internal forces, deformation and support constrained forces of the structure were obtained in this paper. Furthermore, the influences of parameters including prestress, stay bar length, cross-sectional area and rise-to-span ratio were also discussed. The results show that the increase of prestress and vertical stay bar length can improve the stiffness of suspendome; Cross-sectional area has nearly no impact on the static behavior, and the rise-to-span ratio is the most sensitive parameter.