Effects of Stiffeners on Nonlinear Stability of Self-Erecting Dome

Effects of stiffeners on nonlinear buckling and postbuckling behavior of prebuckled and corresponding rigid domes are investigated. A prestressed dome is formed by the buckling of individual flat members by a special erection procedure. During the second stage of construction, flexible or rigid stiffeners in the form of cables or rings, respectively, are attached in the circumferential direction of the erected dome. To compare the buckling phenomena of a prestressed dome against its rigid counterpart, the stress induced during the prebuckling process is initialized to zero stress, to get the corresponding rigid virgin shape. The study shows that both rigid and prestressed domes reach the limit points without showing any bifurcation tendency. The structure snaps through at the limit point and reaches a second peak in the postbuckling range. The study reveals that stiffeners improve the strength-to-weight ratio of elastica domes significantly showing much improvement in the nonlinear stability behavior including in the postbuckling range.