Structural Vulnerability of a Single-Layer Dome Based on Its Form

Abstract

Structural vulnerability theory is a theory of structural form and connectivity. Its purpose is to identify particular failure scenarios by analyzing the connectivity of the structural form. In this paper, the displacement resulting from a unit force is taken as the evaluation index of the well-formedness of a structure. Load and structural form are studied in a unified theoretical framework to identify the potential weaknesses in such a structure under loading. A vulnerability analysis is then performed on three shake table test models of a single-layer reticulated dome built at a scale of 1:10 to determine its vulnerable failure scenarios. The results show that the collapse modes and the identified weaknesses of the structure predicted by the suggested method are consistent with the test results. This study verifies the effectiveness of the suggested method in determining the weaknesses and damage locations of the structure under load.