RESEARCH ON THE MOST DANGEROUS SNOW DISTRIBUTION ON SINGLE-LAYER SPHERICAL LATTICED SHELLS

Snow loads are important in the design of large span latticed shell structures, and the distribution of snow on roof is non-uniform due to the effect of wind and temperature. Thusly, the problem how to determine the most dangerous snow distribution on single-layer spherical latticed shells is valuable. A method of location combination is provided in this paper to solve the above problem. In first step, the roof is divided into 8 sectors in the radial direction and snow loads are applied at different sectors considering all kinds of permutations and combinations, then the limited bearing capacity of the latticed shell was calculated and the most dangerous snow distribution in the radial direction was determined. In second step, the roof is divided into 6 locations in the circular direction and snow loads are applied at different locations considering all kinds of permutations and combinations, then the limited bearing capacity of the latticed shell was calculated and the most dangerous snow distribution in the circular direction was determined. In third step, the dangerous snow distributions in the radical and in the circular direction are combined together and the most dangerous snow distribution on spherical latticed shells can be determined. Results show that when the snow loads are applied at the outer two circles in the half-span roof, the limited bearing capacity of the latticed shell is lowest, which decreased 24.8% and 16.3% compared with full-span and half-span snow loads respectively.