Dynamic and Static Behavior of Cable Dome Model

Abstract

The static and dynamic behavior of a cable dome was studied by testing a 1/50 scale model. Three different pretension levels were considered. The static response of the model under a symmetric and an antisymmetric loading was investigated. The cable dome's behavior changes from a compressive to a tensile membrane with increasing applied central load. The cable model exhibits a hardening response, especially in the antisymmetric mode. The nonlinearity becomes more pronounced with decreasing pretension. The stiffness in the antisymmetric mode is dominated by the geometric stiffness from pretensioning. In the vertical acceleration (symmetric) test at the intermediate pretension the first dominant mode was antisymmetric. A small exciter was also used to apply a single asymmetric controlled force. Up and down harmonic excitation sweeps showed a dynamic instability. The frequency range over which the response is unstable decreases with increasing pretension. The dynamic to static strain ratio decreased from 20% to 2.3% as pretension increased from the lowest to the highest value.