The impact of valency and the orientation of the members on the global stability of lattice steel domes

Different single-layer lattice domes are created based on varying the arrangement of members. Although the stability of triangulated lattice domes has been studied earlier, the influence of the arrangement of members on their stability has not been investigated. The arrangement of members in lattice structures can be redefined based on the valency of different elements and the orientation of the members. Valency gives the interconnection between different elements, and orientation provides the spatial arrangement of the member with respect to the circumferential and radial directions. The variation of these two factors fundamentally defines the overall stability of single-layer lattice domes. Therefore, the influence of the valency and orientation of members on the stability of single-layer lattice domes is studied in this paper by comparing the elasto-plastic stability of commonly adopted single-layer lattice dome configurations, such as Kiewitt, Schwedler, Lamella, Radial rib, Sunflower, and Hexagon domes. The geometrical and material non-linear analyses of the selected single-layer domes reveal that the higher edge valency of vertices, higher vertex valency of cells, and the members oriented along the radial and circumferential directions increase the overall stability of the structure. These results help to identify the optimum number and orientation of the members at each node of the structure so that designers can adopt new configurations with higher stability and load capacity.

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