STRUCTURAL

SYSTEMS

LAMELLA
DOMES
 INTRODUCTION:

 Lamella dome is made of intersecting arches hinged

together at their midpoints to form an interlocking
network in a diamond pattern.

arches

hinged

midpoints

DIAMOND PATTERN
STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS
 LAMELLA DOMES ARE CHARACTERIZED BY
VARIATIONS IN LAMELLA FRAMES.
only a few of the ribs
running from the rim to the
crown of the dome as
meridional spherical sector
dividers

all other ribs running as

intra—sector parallel lines,
curvilinear or straight, and

a diamond grid being thus

formed.
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 THIS TYPE OF STRUCTURE HAS THE ADVANTAGES OF

 eliminating the crowding effect of meridional ribs

at the crown of the dome

 dispensing with the necessity of introducing a

compression ring around the crown

 having all panel loads at rib intersections

almost equal in magnitude

 requiring only short, light struts for all rib

segments (straight or curved), and

 uniform stress distribution.

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EXAMPLE :

Many lamella domes have been built in France. Germany, Italy and
Russia.

In the United States many domes of this type have been built by the
Roof Structures Inc. of St. Louis, Missouri.

The WICHITA UNIVERSITY FIELD HOUSE, 75 m in diameter was

the first large steel dome

to be constructed in 1956, using the lamella system.

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TYPES Main types of lamella domes

Two types:-

Curvilinear
lamella domes

Parallel lamella
domes

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CURVILINEAR LAMELLA DOMES:

 In these domes the short struts are connected at the

junction of several diamonds.

 Each diamond may be subdivided in to triangles.

 Individual struts can be straight or curved, of steel or

aluminum tubing, or of laminated wood, steel or aluminum
when welded at the intersections provides a rigid frame
assembly not requiring mw provision at the base of the
dome for thrust.

 Laminated wood members, however, require a tension ring

at the base.

 The base of a lamella dome is a many sided figure that

closely approximates to a circle (The uses of curved
decking would result in a circular base)
STRUUCTURAL SYSTEMS
 By retaining the features of having compression rings at the
crown, incorporating intermediate rings at the crown, incorporating
intermediate rings of concentric circles, and running ribs from
lower rim to the top centre compression ring, as in solid rib domes,
but locating these ribs intersecting each other on a curved plan so
as to form diamond-shaped panels, results in the curvilinear lamella
dome.

This system has increased interlocking stiffness, offers the

simplicity of having only two different triangles between any two
rings (which differ only in their base lengths)- Thus it provides
duplicate lengths and connections between latitupes , but still has
the disadvantage of having all curved ribs focusing on the top
centre.
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EXAMPLES OF CURVILINEAR LAMELLA DOMES:

The ENGINEERING EXHIBITS PAVILION built in 1959

for the Brno, Czechoslovakia, international Trade Fair is
an example of the curvilinear lamella dome.

This dome has a diameter of 95 m.

STRUUCTURAL SYSTEMS
 EXAMPLES OF CURVILINEAR LAMELLA DOMES:

The curvilinear lamella dome for a conservatory on top of little

MOUNTAIN IN QUEEN ELIZABETH Park in Vancouver, Canada.

 This dome has a base diameter of 42.67m and a rise of 10.3m.

It is built out of Triode tic components (minimum tube size 10 cm,
maximum tube size l2 cm. All the tubes have a thickness of 0.375 cm).

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All the structural components of
this dome were fabricated in
Ottawa and shipped to Vancouver
site.

The erection was completed in 775

man hours.

The dome was covered with a

series of shaped triangular Plexiglas
panels fitted to an aluminum glazing
system connected to the nodal
points.

Ventilation to this dome is

provided by means of a mechanical
fan which is situated at the apex of
the dome.

STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS
 PARALLEL LAMELLA DOMES:

Parallel Lamella system is a system in which the dome is

divided into a number of cyclically symmetrical sectors
braced by two sets of lamella members, each parallel to one
of the main radial ribs.

This arrangement of bracing, though developed in

connection with the construction of steel lamella domes,
differs so basically in layout from those previously described,
that it is usually referred to as Kiewitt Dome, after the name
of its inventor.

STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS
EXAMPLES OF PARALLEL LAMELLA DOMES:
1. KIEWIT DOME

The world's largest indoor desert

exhibit, located within the world's
LARGEST GLAZED DOME, opened at
Omaha's Henry Dourly Zoo in March
2002.

Major items of work included drilling

159 30-ft.-deep belled piers; placing
nearly 900 ft. of buried reinforced
concrete pipe; pouring two 41,000-sq.-
ft. base floor slabs; constructing a 32-
ft.-tall concrete ring wall; and erecting
and anchoring the 137-ft.-tall glazed
dome, which is composed of 1,760
quarter-in.-thick acrylic, triangular-
shaped panels.

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During construction of the slabs and ring wall, crews placed
10,000 tons of concrete and 250 tons of reinforcing steel.

Inside the dome, more than 2,000-ft. of masonry walls

enclose animal exhibits, keeper rooms and holding areas.
Another 60,000 masonry blocks were used for irregular walls
that form the exhibit rockwork's main support.

KIEWIT DOME
STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS
 2. HARRIS COUNTRY SPORTS STADIUM IN HOUSTON

One of the biggest steel domes

in the world has a clear span of
about 200 m and covers the
Harris Country Sports Stadium in
Houston, Texas.

This dome is 63 m high at

centre and covers an area of 3
ha.

It is an excellent example of

the parallel lamella form of
construction.

Its surface is divided into 12

sectors, each sector being
divided again into six peripheral
joints along the tension ring and
six joints along the meridian ribs.
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The dome provides 46,000 seats for baseball or up to 66,000 seats
for conventions and boxing matches.

This dome is stiffened by a tension ring and supported on its

perimeter lines by 72 columns.

The unit weight of steelwork for this dome is70kg/m2

SECTION

STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS
OTHER ASPECTS OF LAMELLA DOMES

Lamella domes are structurally indeterminate.

Usually these types of domes are analysedusing matrix methods of

structural analysis.

The calculation of the coordinates of the junction points of the

diamonds and the lengths of the individual struts is tedious and time
consuming unless they are mathematically programmed for machine
computations.

The erection of lamella dome can be performed by the use of a gin

pole with the top-most struts fastened together first, the
structure lifted, and additional struts then attached, until the
entire dome is completed.

The most common form of sub—roofing for lamella domes is

curved wooden decking, progressively applied. Precast concrete
units can also be fastened to individual triangles.
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DETAILS OF TIMBER LAMELLA DOMES

L
I Prefabricated A
lamella domes can be M
constructed using E
wooden members. L
L
Many domes of this
type have been built in A
India, Africa and other
countries. The details D
of these timber domes O
have been developed at M
the Forest Research E
Institute. Dehra Dun.
S

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THANK YOU…

Submitted by,
Rashmi Bhatt
060129
8th sem