Universal equivalent static wind load estimation for spatial structures based on wind-induced envelope responses

Abstract

With the rapid development of new materials and structural techniques, many new kinds of spatial structural systems have been widely used for large-span roofs, such as the sport, exhibition and entertainment halls, and they are becoming more and more large-span and flexible. However, up to now, wind-resistant design of large-span spatial structures is still complex and difficult in practice due to their strong individuality and complexity of architectural shapes and lack of practical and feasible provisions in related codes for structural design especially. In this paper, a practical wind-resistant approach based on Wind-induced Envelope Responses, i.e., the maximum or minimum responses, including displacement of any nodes, internal forces (axial force, bending moment, torsional moment, or extreme stress, etc.) of any elements, reaction of any supports, etc., of the structures in question under the expected wind load action with any attack angle, is presented for this problem from the structural designers¿ point of view, and the advantages and disadvantages of the existing approaches used in wind-resistant design of large-span spatial structures, as well as the presented one, are analyzed at different aspects, such as necessary information of wind load, time consuming problem, convenience in practice, and so on. Finally, the convenience and efficiency of the presented approach is illuminated with two numerical examples of single layered reticulated shells based on the pressure information obtained from wind tunnel tests.