Structural Performance of the Tensioning Air Beam System and its Analytical Modeling

Abstract

A study on the structural performance of the tensioning air beam system (TABS) is presented. TABS consists of the air beam, steel frames and cable struts and is a hybrid structural system. This system has the advantage of reduced self-weight and is easy to construct while it can improve the load bearing capacity of membrane structures. It maximizes the structural capacities of individual elements, thus can be considered as a very effective system in both structural and economical aspects. In this study, a structural test was carried out to investigate the structural performance of TABS under different membrane pressure conditions. A simple analytical model was proposed to predict the structural behavior of TABS and its validity was evaluated by comparing its results with the test values.