Doubly curved shallow shells with rectangular base elastically supported by edge arched beams and tie-rods (I)

Abstract

The equations of equilibrium of shallow shells with rectangular base elastically supported with edge arched beams are obtained through the variational principle together with corresponding boundary conditions and corner conditions. It is assumed that edge arched beams are of narrow plate form, so that only the rigidities in their own planes are taken into consideration, torsional rigidities and bending rigidities out of their own planes are neglected. In this paper, two kinds of corner conditions are discussed. First of these is pinned corner conditions. Second of these is simply supported corner conditions, such that the corner can be moved freely in horizontal directions. The former corresponds to the conditions of those with heavy tension beams, in which the tension rigidities of the rods can be assumed infinite. The latter corresponds to the conditions of elastically supported edge arched beams without tension rods. In the former case, the edge tangential displacement of shallow shells is assumed to be zero everywhere, so that the vertical displacement of the edge arched beams gives the only elastic supported forces. This kind of supporting conditions is a good approximation for practical roof design.

In this paper, the solutions of the problem of shallow spherical shell of square base supported elastically by edge arched beams and tie-rods under the conditions, such that the corners are restricted, are solved by the method of double trigonometric series. The edge conditions are integrated along their respective edge, and the conditions at corner are satisfied by proper choices of integral constants. The integrated edge conditions are then used to determine the unknown constants in the double trigonometric series. The result of this paper gives the tension in the tie-rods directly, which is an important quantity in the shell roof design practice.

The method of integrated form of boundary conditions used in this paper in general is useful for the treatment of problem of plates and shells elastically supported by edge frames and tie-rods or by other means.

This paper also gives the results of numerical calculation based upon the method of double trigonometric series on the problem of shallow spherical shell with square bases elastically supported by arched beams. The corner are pinned supported or simply supported. The calculated results for λ=11.5936 show that the trigonometric series converges rapidly. The effect of elastic deformation in the arched beams to the components of membrane tensions, moments, and deflections of the shell are given.