Buckling Behaviour of Aluminium Ball Jointed Single Layered Reticular Domes

Abstract

This paper discusses the buckling behaviour of aluminium alloy single layered reticular domes, composed of tubular truss members and ball joint connections, through loading tests and numerical simulations on 1:5 scaled test structures. Based on the presented experiments, an estimation method for the buckling strength of the aluminium reticular domes, which is essential for practical structural design and also for predicting the validity of the non-linear analyses, is proposed. Further, the non-linear analysis is executed for the test models and the applicability of the analysis method for such aluminium reticular domes is discussed.