Study on Diaphragm Effect of Steel Dome Using FEM Method

This study adopted the finite element software ANSYS to analyze the diaphragm effect of a 30 m diameter steel dome. The model takes into account the material nonlinearity and geometrical nonlinearity. The dome´s mechanical response under static pressure was obtained. Riks method was adopted to trace the ultimate bearing capacity of the dome. Full comparisons are presented in this paper to illustrate the diaphragm effect of the dome. The results show that the diaphragm effect can significantly improve the bearing capacity of the dome.