Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of a Shallow Geodesic Dome

Abstract

This paper presents the nonlinear analytical and experimental study of a shallow geodesic dome comprising thin walled circular hollow sections where the large displacement theory is applicable. The numerical formulation is based on the updated Lagrangian method incorporating geometric and material nonlinearities. The strain unloading is included in the present numerical analysis. Warping effects are ignored. A 156-member shallow geodesic dome that has a rise to span ratio of 1:10 (i.e., a rise of 600 mm to span of 6000 mm) was constructed and tested experimentally to validate the proposed numerical method. The analytical nonlinear analysis of this dome compares well with the experimental results. Both results show a considerable difference with the large displacement analysis in which the material nonlinearity is not considered.