Design and construction details of our assignment

 Shell roof is a thin structural curved skin commonly used where

the interior of a building needs to be free from intermediate
walls or columns.
Although it is thin, it able to support heavy load. This is because the
curve will act as additional support to support the load and undergoes
a very small deformation.
The curvature of shell structures benefits from the same structural
efficiency due to its arches, which are pure compression forms with
no tensile stresses. Because of their structural efficiency, less material
is generally needed compared to other traditional roofs.
A wide variety of shell roof shapes and types can be constructed and
they are classified into hyperbolic paraboloid, domes, vaults and
conoids.

The first type of shell rood that I would like to share is Hyperbolic
paraboloid which is also known as HyPar
 Hypar is a shell roof structure type applied by KLIA. The roof is
a doubly-curved surface that resembles the shape of a saddle. It
has a concave parabola along one axis as u can see from the first
diagram, and a convex parabola along the other which shows in
second diagram and hence forming a hyperbolic paraboloid.
 It will be known as hyperbolic paraboloid because of the
horizontal sections taken through the roof are hyperbola while
the vertical sections are parabola
 However, the resultant shape is not very suitable to be
constructed as a roof, therefore there is only part of the saddle
shape is used. The portion of saddle shaped used is formed by
joining the centre points of the saddle shape and thus forming
the shape which is suitable for roofing purpose.
 In order to obtain a more practical shape which able to be used
in construction, a straight line limited hyperbolic paraboloid is
used. This is formed by raising or lowering the corners of a
square. There are few typical hyperbolic paraboloid roof shapes.
For the first type, the corners A and C of square ABCD is raised to E
and F respectively, therefore it forms a shape where AE=CF.

For the second type, the corner A of square ABCD is raised at a

certain height to E

 Next, the third type is where the corners A and C of square

ABCD is raised at different height to E and F respectively,
therefore AE is not equal to CF.

Fourthly, the corners A and C of square ABCD are raised to E and G

at the same height.
The corners B and D are also lowered to F and H respectively at the
same height. Therefore, AE will be equal to CG and BF=DH.

 The last type is formed by combining different surfaces of

hyperbolic paraboloid into one single roof.

 Next, as u can see from the diagram, the main terminal building
of KLIA is constructed with hyperbolic paraboloid roof
structure. It is constructed by Eversendai Corporation Berhad.
The hyperbolic paraboloid roof structure of KLIA able to
symbolise Malaysian traditional architecture and Islamic culture.
The height between the ground and hypar ceiling is varies from
about 11 to 23m. It is erected from side to side of a 3D
arrangement of raking skylights in KLIA. It is also constructed
in modular design. Modular design means the approach that
subdivides a system into smaller parts that can be independently
created. The purpose is to allow future expansion. In order to
form a hyperbolic paraboloid surface for the roof of main
terminal, the skylight trusses are arranged in the way of two
high points and two low points.

 Next, at main terminal, the interconnecting shells are supported

by triangulated skylight keel trusses. Roof trusses is the most
important component when installing the roof structure. Every
30 metres of trusses of main terminal is constructed into two
 halves. Each of the lower end of trusses are connected with a
cast pin-joint component. Therefore, a series of triangles pin
jointed trusses is formed. Then, the pin-joint trusses are lifted on
in two parts to the departure level slab at KLIA followed by the
process of welding and glazing.

 Glazing is important in KLIA which able to improve energy

efficiency. It allows natural daylight and hence able to provide
indoor comfort. The glazing designed used in KLIA is two
mirrored sections of a cone and the base is sliced to form curved
profile of skylight.

 Although I have mentioned that shell roof can be constructed

without the need of supporting beam and column at the
beginning of my presentation, there are still some reasons which
might cause the roof to deflect if without the beam and column.
The first reason is due to the installation of roof under too large
area. The total area of KLIA is too large for hyperbolic
paraboloid roof to be installed. Therefore, it might cause high
stress condition at the roof side.

Due to the reason of the edges of hypar roof structure has poor
strength and rigidity, the high stress condition occurred at the roof
side will also lead to excessive deflection on roof.

Therefore, to overcome this problem, we can see that KLIA has

installed supporting columns at the edge of the roof. Besides that,
conical columns are also constructed in main terminal. It helps in
transmitting the loads from the hyperbolic paraboloid roof to the
ground.

 Other than hypar roof structure, shell roof is also consist of

dome roof type structure.
Dome shell roof is a roof that is constructed in the shape of hollow
half of a sphere.
It is a doubled-curvature shell that curve in two directions which can
be used to cover circular or square space. A dome shell roof is often
used for religious buildings such as mosque. This is because dome
represents the heavens.

There are three typical types of dome roof structure, which are
rotational dome, translational dome and pendentive dome.

 For the first one, rotational dome. Rotational dome is also

known as hemispherical dome due to its shape which is one half
of a sphere. It is created by rotating a curved line around a
vertical axis. It is built on a ring beam to prevent flattening
when there is loads applied.

 Nest, translational dome. Translational dome is formed by

sliding of a curved line over another curved line. The side arches
will carry most of the loads and some of the loads will carry
directly at the corners. Arch rib and tie beam are constructed to
prevent the columns from spreading apart and thus able to resist
the roof from flattening.
 Next, pendentive dome. Pendentive dome is constructed by
inscribing a regular polygon within the base of the circle. And
vertical planes of the rotational dome is cut through.
Pendentives actually are referring to the triangular segments of a
dome that wide at the top and narrow at the bottom to support
the dome.
The outward force from the weight of dome will be concentrated at
these four pendentives. Then, the force will be directed down to
columns then to the foundation. Due to the loads applied, the
pendentive dome will also tend to flatten. To prevent flattening, it is
also constructed with arch rib and tie beam same as translational
dome.