Imperfection Sensitivity of Non-Triangulated Cylindrical Shell Configurations

Abstract

Non-triangulated lattice shells are rarely adopted for large structures due to their lower resistance and stability compared to triangulated shells. As a result, only a few studies are available for the stability evaluation of non-triangulated shell configurations. However, these shell structures can be used for roofs with lower dimensions and lower resistance requirements. As studies related to the imperfection of non-triangulated shell structures are rare, an attempt has been made to study the effect of initial geometric imperfection on the overall resistance of cylindrical shells created using parameterisation principles. The influence of the different magnitude of initial geometric imperfection on the overall resistance of non-triangulated reticulated shells was studied under the uniform gravity load. The results illustrate the significant influence of initial geometric imperfection on the load capacity of non-triangulated shell configurations compared to the triangulated shell configurations. The effect of the initial geometric imperfection on the load capacity increases with the edge valency of faces and decreases with the edge valency of vertices. This study provides information to designers for designing non-triangulated shell structures by considering initial geometric imperfections encountered in the system.