FORM FINDING AND LOADING EXPERIMENT OF CABLE DOMES

The form finding and loading experiment are conducted on a model of a cable dome with the diameter of 4.8m by tensing diagonal cables and stressing static loads on its certain nodes. The behavior of the model during the forming process with nonsymmetrical loads is investigated. The experimental results indicate initial lengths of members, gravity effect and prestress loss etc are the key issues of cable dome design. The results not only approve the methods of form finding and force finding proposed by the authors are reliable and effective, but also the non-conservation of cable domes.