Characteristics Of Wind Loads And Wind-induced Vibrations Of Saddle-shaped Tensioned Membrane Structures

Membrane structures are sensitive to wind because of the characteristics of light weight and small stiffness. Therefore, on the basis of fully mastering the characteristics of wind load, with consideration of wind-structure interaction and geometrical nonlinearity, to reasonably determine the wind-induced vibration of membrane structure is very important in theory and applications.In this paper the characteristics of wind load and wind-induced vibration of saddle-shaped tensioned membrane structure is systematically studied. In addition, effect of wind-structure interaction on wind-induced vibration is concerned. The main contents are as follows:(1) Wind tunnel measuring pressure tests of saddle membrane structures were designed and completed. And the influence of factors such as enclosed walls, wind directions, ratio of rise to span, roof height on wind load characteristic was investigated. The results showed that enclosed walls and wind directions would have a great influence on wind loads of saddle-shaped membrane structures. In contrast, the ratio of rise to span and roof height had a less impact upon the wind loads.(2) Based on the wind tunnel test data, the wind-induced response of membrane structures is calculated with time-history analysis method, with consideration of the impact of factors such as enclosed walls, ratio of rise to span, span, initial pre-tension, wind speed and wind directions. On this foundation, wind-induced vibration coefficient for the whole structure was given for reference. The results indicated that the wind-induced vibration characteristics of saddle-shaped membrane structures with or without enclosed wall had significant variations, and the increase of ratio of rise to span and initial pre-tension would decrease the extreme displacement of structures in different extent.(3) On the basis of wind tunnel measuring pressure test data, the response time histories of saddle-shaped membrane structures without considering wind-structure interaction were gotton by time domain analysis, which is compared with aeroelastic model tests. And the impact of wind-structure interaction on wind-induced vibration of saddle-shaped membrane structure was discussed. The results showed that wind-structure interaction had a minimal impact on wind-induced vibration response of this kind of structure when there was no occurrence of aeroelastic instability.