Earthquake Effects on Single Layer Lattice Domes with Supporting Frames

Jianheng SUN Professor Department of Civil Engineering Agricultural University of Hebei Baoding, China
sunjianheng@yahoo.com Jianheng Sun, born 1962, received his Ph.D. from Tsinghua Univ., China. His main area of research is spatial structures. Now he is a visiting professor in the University of Surrey.

Hongmei LI Lecturer Department of Civil Engineering Agricultural University of Hebei Baoding, China
xqren@126.com Hongmei LI, born1975. Her main area of research is spatial structures.

A. Rahimi NOSHNAGH Ph.D. Student Space Structures Research Centre Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences University of Surrey Guildford, UK
a.rahimi-noshnagh@surrey.ac.uk A. Rahimi Noshnagh, born 1971, received his MSc Structural Engineering degree from the Univ. of Surrey. His research subject is suspen-domes, a new type of hybrid dome structures.

Summary
Spatial structures have been widely used in engineering to cover large areas. Amongst these, single layer lattice domes, due to their lightness, as well as their beauty, are commonly used. In the past few years, the seismic analysis of these structures has been one of the most important research areas of spatial structures. As a result, there are many published works available but in most cases they are restricted to where the earthquake loads are directly applied to the main dome structure. However, in practical engineering, most spatial structures, whether double layer or single layer, flat or curved, have supporting frames or substructures. In the process of an earthquake, the ground motions act on the bottom of the substructure and then the effects are transmitted to the main dome structure. Therefore, for an accurate investigation of earthquake resisting spatial structures, the main dome structure and the supporting frames (substructures) should be analysed as an integral whole. This paper examines the behaviour of single layer lattice domes having a number of supporting frames with different degrees of stiffness. Three dimensional earthquake actions with peak acceleration and frequency are applied to the system and the seismic response is carefully studied. In examining the seismic behaviour of these domes, the analysis is based on the large displacement theory. Different degrees of stiffness for the steel supporting frames (substructures) are considered to determine the effect that a supporting frame has on the seismic behaviour of the main lattice dome structure. In addition, the seismic response of the same corresponding domes, supported directly on the ground without supporting frames (substructures) is also considered. The displacements and the internal forces for domes in different analysis modes and different stiffnesses of the supporting frames, are examined and the results compared. Conclusions regarding the seismic behaviour of these types of structures are obtained by comparing the different results. Keywords: Earthquake effect, Single layer lattice domes, Supporting frame.