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Shell Roof Structures / Case Study Modeling and Design

Technical Report · November 2019

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 Shell Roof Structures / Case Study
Modeling and Design

Samir H. Helou Ph.D., P. E., Jamal Qadamani M.Sc.

Abstract:
Most structural systems in the West Bank are based on rather short or
intermediate modules and are comprised of traditional framing of slabs,
beams and columns. In few instances where wider spans are desired steel
beams are occasionally used; but usually deep reinforced concrete beams
form more of a rule rather than an exception. Furthermore, these are still
based on traditional methods of analysis and design. The dome-like roof
that is presently an integral part of the skyline in Alteereh/Ramalla is a clear
diversion from the traditional structural systems. It was meant to promote a
long overdue endeavor of spreading the culture of long span structural
systems that are cost effective, feasible and potentially blend well with
traditional Palestinian Architecture. Design and construction in this case was
truly an indigenous all Palestinian exercise.
Introduction:
One of the larger spanned structures that were recently implemented in the
city of Ramallah is the dome-like cover for the new sporting facility of the
Ramallah First Group. The architectural plans of the new building include
one modern basketball court that meets international standards together
with a stadium of a seating capacity close to 800 spectators. The cover of
that facility was originally contemplated to be made of steel elements and
metal sheet cover. This meant importing the construction material and the
expertise in that particular system construction. The envisaged undertaking
proved to be of an exorbitant cost that would never fall within the financial
constraints of the Ramallah First Group. The prudent choice was then made
to use, to the extent possible, locally produced materials. Hence a reinforced
concrete shell structure was the consensus agreed upon technically,
functionally as well as financially.
In the following presentation the focus is on the roofing system, its design
and field implementation. The aim is to illustrate in numbers and in figures
that the technology involved is within reach. All it requires is strong
determination coupled with a culture of accepting challenges. Shell theory in
its basic constituents is illustrated.
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The Structural System:
Soil conditions at the site clearly showed that isolated footings with
interconnecting tie beams would be adequate to withstand the anticipated
loads. The exterior size of the new Ramallah First Group building is about
40 meters in length and 33 meters in width. The spacing of columns was set
at 8 meters hence in the long direction six columns of dimension 40x65 on
each side of the building are set. Shear walls in selected bays were also
designated, albeit in a symmetric fashion in order to provide stability and to
increase stiffness that would substantially increase the fundamental
frequency while inducing little or no torsion effects. The reinforced concrete
roof, of an Elliptical Paraboloid shape and a projected area of about 1300
square meters, has an edge beam of a channel shape resting on the periphery
columns. The vertex of the shell is 7.2 meters above its corners. Tie beams
between all columns at a height of six meters are also specified. Spread
footings of square shape are assigned to provide complete fixity. The
structure of the stadium itself is a traditional one that presented a standard
design and construction task.
The Numerical Model:
The engineering task was to effectively support the entire shell on four
corners only, by taking advantage of the dome general behavior. The
geometric shape esthetically suitable for the locality was conceived to be an
elliptical paraboloid. The underlying membrane theory for such geometry
was developed by A.L. Parme but there are little published examples of
shells of such a form.
The mathematical equation that describes the topology of the shell is:
z=c1x2/a2 + c2y2/b2
The curvatures along the x and y axes because one slope is always zero, are

1 ∂ 2 z 2c1
= = 2 along the x axis,
rx ∂s 2 a

1 ∂ 2 z 2c 2
= = 2 along the y axis.
ry ∂y 2 b

2
 ∂z ∂z
If the shell is flat <<1 and <<1 then b and c may be considered as
∂x ∂y
constants over the entire surface so that arcs of circles with radii rx and ry
approximate the parabolas, whereas for a constant z the equation reduces to
that of an ellipse. The definition of c1 and c2 is clearly shown on the
accompanying sketch. In the present case the said values were 4 meters and
3.2 meters respectively.
The numerical model was developed using the Finite Element Program
SAP2000 version 9. Columns with the exception of the corner ones were
chosen to be of a rectangular shape of 40 cm x 65 cm sections; the corner
columns, of a cross shape, were selected to satisfy esthetics. The tie beams
between footings are of a standard rectangular shape while the column tie
beams are of an L shape cross section. The shell nodal coordinates were
imported to the numerical model through a simple Excel calculation sheet
but for one quarter of the dome; the rest of the nodes were properly
replicated within the source code. Each shell element had an approximate
area of 4.2 m2. Elements close to the boundaries were modeled as thin shell
elements of uniform thickness of 21 centimeters; the elements towards the
middle were assigned a uniform thickness of 10 centimeters and the ones in
between were given a thickness of 14 centimeters. This mechanism allows
for full shell behavior i.e. a combination of membrane together with plate
behavior. Spread footings were all assumed to provide full fixity.
Loads applied to the dome included, in addition to the self weight, snow
load and a rather small live load. Analysis cases were limited to the applied
static dead and live loads, the snow load and a suitable response spectrum.
The UBC 97 response spectrum with 5% damping ratio is adopted in the
study. The design spectral response acceleration Sd are assumed to be 0.2g.
The unit weight for concrete was taken as 25kN/m3 with a Poisson's ratio
of 0.2. The elastic modulus of concrete B400 is taken as 28,500MPa.
Figure 1 shows an extruded view of the entire model that includes the
interior stadium. It should be noted from the figure that the edge beams
were modeled as channel sections in order to serve vernacular
considerations.

3
 FIGURE 1: THE NUMERICAL MODEL INCLUDED THE INTERIOR STADIUM

Analysis and Design:

It is prudent to remember the general shell behavior by invoking the simple
membrane theory. While thin shells are capable of effectively resisting in
plane stresses, they are poor in resisting bending moments and shear forces.
A foam bubble once punctured can no longer support the instantaneously
developed bending moment and shearing forces although the foam bubble
is capable of supporting considerable internal pressure. However, particular
attention needs to be paid for the conditions at the edges where the
membrane theory fails to satisfy compatibility conditions.
Simply stated the problem is reduced to that of a design of elements subject
to in-plane compression stresses; these are the middle elements, which
constituted most of the elements, while the elements towards the edges were
designed to take some flexure in addition to the compressive stresses. The
following five loading combinations were thus applied to the entire
structures:
1. Load Combination 1 =DL+ LL +SL (Service Loads)
2. Load Combination 2 =1.2 DL+1.6LL
3. Load Combination 3 =1.2 DL+1.6LL+1.6 SL
4. Load Combination 4 =1.05 DL+ 1.275LL+1.4 EQ
5. Load Combination 5 =1.05 DL+ 1.275LL -1.4 EQ
LL denotes Live Load
DL denotes Dead load

4
SL denotes Snow Load
EQ denotes Earthquake Loads
The above loading cases are in addition to two other indispensable analysis
cases tailored to check buckling of the elements in compression. One is to
check for buckling due to dead and the live loads while the second is to
check for buckling due to the dead and the snow loads. The design was
carried out according to the ACI 318-02 design code.
In the case of response spectrum analysis the Complete Quadratic
Combination method was selected for the modal combination while the
Square Root Sum of the Squares method was set for the directional
combination. Twelve eigenvectors were extracted in modal decomposition.
Due to the relatively small mass, the fundamental natural frequency turned
to be slightly above 35 radians/second.

Figure 2 Contour of the resultant Figure 3 Contour of the resultant

5
 F11 forces of Load Combination 3 F22 forces of Load Combination 3

Conclusion:
Perhaps the most important result in the design exercise was the satisfaction
of the buckling criterion. Once this matter was guaranteed the rest presented
a simple reinforced concrete design undertaking. The attached figures 1 and
2, present a clear illustration of the resultant forces developed. Speed of
casting and the production of a proper trowel finish formed the primary
target of the festive casting day.

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