Practical Design of Concrete Shells

Arnold Wilson
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Figure 1.9 - Dome of tI Home in Pensacola Beach, Florida survived a direct hit by hurricanes Ivan, Dennis and Katrina. Storm surge forced water through the ground floor garage and tore away the breakaway staircase. The living quarters were u,ndamaged.

top of the dome; it forced the upper dome back into the bottom part of the dome. The result was that no material was deposited outside the dome but was contained within, saving much property damage as well as injury or loss of life. This safety valve technique may have other useful applications for other farm product storage, munitions storage and manufacturing processes for explosives or fireworks. Housing for people is still an untouched area which deserves much more attention in the future. Several years ago, two severe hurricanes, Hugo and Andrew, caused extensive damage along the east coast of the United States. Thousands of houses were destroyed and billions of dollars lost as a result of this damage. But if you lived in a reinforced concrete thin shell dome in the center of the worst damage, your house would have remained in good condition (Figure 1.7, 1.8). On February 23 and 24, 1998, tornadoes ravaged central Florida, destroying more than 2000 houses. Here too, concrete thin shells would have saved lives and property. For the most part, the dome can withstand the extreme violence of even a tornado. On September 15, 2004, Hurricane Ivan with 130 mph (209 km/h) winds hit the coast in Pensacola Beach, Florida. Ivan was one of the fiercest and deadliest storms ever to hit this area, causing great destruction. A concrete 13

1.3 Domes: Where have we been and where are we going?

home in the shape of a dome, named Dome of a Home, and its owners Mark and Valerie Sigler, stood firm and remained relatively dry. The concrete dome withstood the hurricane as neighboring homes were virtually washed out to sea. The impact of the storm was witnessed first hand as Mark Sigler, the owner, accompanied by Craig White, an NBC cameraman, Chuck Stewart, an NBC sound engineer and several other people stayed in the dome through the storm (Figure 1.9). Throughout the world, simple domes for houses could provide stable housing by utilizing local materials such as concrete. Because of their shape, domes require less construction material than most other structures. , Since about 1975, the ability to create a dome ecqnpmi<;:allytriggered world-wide interest. Now, twenty-five years later, the indu~try is still in its , infancy. Only a few people are involved. More architects, engineers and builders are needed to promote concrete thin shells, particularly those utilizing economical forming systems. Domes in sizes as large as 260 feet in diameter and 130 feet high have been built successfully, but the future now holds promise for much larger domes. Wouldn't it be exciting if we could build a dome structure as a large stadium for professional football and basketball by using concrete with its many advantages and at a price competitive with any other system? We can. Research at Brigham Young University demonstrated that very large domes can now be built using inflated forms restrained by a cable system (Jacobs 1996; South 1997) (Figure 1.10). Until recently the size of the dome was limited to the strength of the material used to make its inflatable form. Force in the fabric is created by the magnitude of air pressure times the radius of curvature of the fabric. As domes get larger and/or of lower profile, the radius of curvature increases, while the pressure required for construction remains nearly constant. When the safe capacity of the material is reached, the size and/or flatness of the dome is also reached. The invention of the cable restrained system demonstrated that with exterior cables attached to the foundation and secured over the inflated form an increase in air pressure is possible without endangering the safety of the inflated form. Since a certain air pressure is necessary to meet construction requirements, it then becomes possible to increase the dome's radius of curvature. A unique phenomenon takes place as the air pressure is increased. The fabric stretches between the cable restraints. The modulus of elasticity of the fabric is very low compared to the modulus of the steel cables; thus the fabric stretches more than the cables and creates small domes by puffing out between the cables. These small domes now have a smaller radius of curvature and hence a reductioll ill fflbric force. This means that a very large structure can now be consII'lH;14d wilh n very large radius of curvature because the
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