Finite Element Analysis of Stadia Dome Roofs : Study and develop a finite element formulation of truss element which simulates the 3D curved cable and truss structures

The analysis of large span roofs appear to be one of most challenging in the field of construction engineering. This works presents linear analysis of stadia dome roof based on finite element analysis. To analyse the roof, an element stiffness matrix in space was formulated based on a straight truss element. The linear finite element formulation was implemented in program LFASDR. The developed program LFASDR was used to analyse numerous examples of roofs. These were flat roof, ascending roof, curved roof, circular arc roof, star dome roof and circular dome roof. The results obtained from LFASDR were compared with known published solutions and also with those obtained using STAADpro2007. The comparison shows a good agreement by a percentage reached 99.42%.