STABILITY OF SINGLE-LAYER THREE-WAY RETICULATED BARREL VAULTS CONSIDERING GLOBAL GEOMETRIC IMPERFECTION, MEMBER IMPERFECTION AND ECCENTRICITY

Single-layer reticulated barrel vaults are sensitive to imperfections. To figure out the impact of global geometric imperfection, member imperfection and eccentricity on the load-bearing capacity of reticulated barrel vaults, a model integrated with the three imperfections and the corresponding modelling procedures were clarified. The effect of the imperfections and their couplings on the stability of barrel vaults were studied. The method was developed to determine the most unfavorable combination of the three imperfections. The numerical results show that the load-bearing capacity of barrel vaults is most sensitive to the global geometric imperfection, and is obviously influenced by the member imperfection. The effect of the member imperfection is related to the magnitude of the global geometric imperfection, and becomes weaker with the increase of the global geometric imperfection. The limit load of barrel vaults is also affected by the member bowed direction. The limit load roughly linearly decreases with the increase in the member eccentricity. The effect of the member imperfection and eccentricity on the limit load is also apparent compared with global geometric imperfection, and should not be neglected whether the magnitude of the global geometric imperfection is large or small. The developed MCIMM is highly efficient to determine the most unfavorable combination of the three imperfections. The initial stiffness and limit load of barrel vaults decrease with the increase in the member imperfection and/or eccentricity.