Structural analysis and optimization of concrete spherical and groined shells

摘要

An understanding of successful shells of the past combined with modern structural analysis methods can aid engineers in designing efficient thin shell concrete structures. This paper presents structural analyses and the optimization study of several notable concrete shells around the world. The finite element analysis using Sofistik software was found to give results close to those from shell theory and to be more powerful when complicated real-life examples were presented. In structural optimization of the concrete spherical and groined shells an attempt is made to reduce overall tensile stress, deflection and reinforcement to the system while changing the limits of the structure's shape. The structural optimization study of these shells shows that a distributed concrete thickness reduces shell stresses, deflections and reinforcements.