Structural Properties of Air-Supported Structures

Abstract

This paper describes the results of static loading tests simulating snow load, of wind pressure measurements and of melting snow tests, respectively, concerning full scale air-supported domes. Static loading tests are conducted for a full scale single-skin air-supported dome, whereas wind pressure measurements are performed using two kinds of model. One is the full scale dome mentioned above, the other is the wind tunnel model. Furthermore, melting snow tests are performed using another full scale double-skin dome in order to investigate how much snow can be melted artificially. Through these series of tests, structural characteristics of this kind of structure against snow load and wind load are confirmed. The results of loading tests and melting snow tests are compared with analytical results; good agreement is obtained.