Non-Uniform Thermal Behaviour of Suspen-Dome with Stacked Arch Structures

In recent years, the arch has been introduced into other structures to form new spatial structures. Typical is the suspen-dome with stacked arches (SDSA), which has been adopted for the Chiping Gymnasium. SDSAs consist of upper arches and a lower suspen-dome. The temperature distribution of the SDSA structure is non-uniform and temperatures are higher than ambient air temperature because of the exposure of the upper arches to solar radiation. The structural behaviour of SDSAs is very complex, therefore, under non-uniform thermal loading with solar radiation taken into account. The variation of thermal behaviour over time under summer solar radiation was studied as well as the effect of cable sliding friction and healing temperature (i.e. the ambient temperature at completion of construction) on the non-uniform thermal behaviour. The analysis results indicate that (1) solar radiation significantly affects SDSAs; (2) the structural behaviour of SDSAs with non-sliding cable strut joints (i.e. the friction is too large to slide) is better than those with sliding cable strut joints (i.e. the friction is zero) under non-uniform thermal loading; (3) the healing temperature of the upper arches and the lower suspen-dome significantly affects thermal response, and the optimal healing temperature for the SDSA structure can be determined.