Analysis and Design of a Type of Retractable Roof Structure

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the analysis and design of radially retractable roof structures (RRS). This new type of structure consists of a foldable lattice of angulated beams connected by scissor hinges to which cover plates or membranes are attached. However, the current design has two obvious shortcomings. First of all, there is a lack of a convenient way to keep all the pivots of an angulated beam within the boundary of its corresponding RRS plate. Secondly, the stiffness of the RRS is too small to resist external loads, which limits the practical application of this structure. This paper aims to tackle these two problems. Based on the analytical formulae given by previous studies, we propose a corresponding design method for the RRS plates and thus the designers can easily figure out plates which fit perfectly together for an RRS. To increase the stiffness of the RRS, a few support conditions for the RRS are discussed and then the structural behavior of numerical simulated models under different support conditions is investigated. Moreover, some measures to increase the stiffness of the RRS are proposed, providing additional choice to the designers. Physical model is built to demonstrate the design concepts and show that the geometrical and mechanical analysis is correct.