Introduction to Shell Structures
Assoc. Prof. Adrian Dogariu
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
General
• Metalic shells
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
General
• Natural shells
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
General
• Natural shells
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
General
• Definition:
• A shell is a thin structure composed of curved sheets of material,
so that the curvature plays an important role in the structural
behavior, realizing a spatial form
• Motivation:
• A shell is the most efficient way of using the material, and can be
very useful in case o storage of fluids and solids (uniform loads)
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
Difficulties
• The curved form may lead to different failure modes and often
unexpected behavior occurs
• The analytical formulas are very complex and complicated in
comparison with all the other structural forms
• Shell structures are very attractive light weight structures which are
especially suited to building as well as industrial applications.
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
Range of application
• The shell structure is typically found
• in nature
• as well as in classical architecture.
• There are two principal uses of shells in civil engineering:
• industrial structures:
– silos, tanks, cooling towers, reactor vessels etc.
• aesthetic and architectural special structures
Main documents
• Eurocode on strength and stability of Steel Shell
Structures – EN1993 Part 1.6 (2007)
• Generic normative standard on shells for
chimneys, towers, masts, silos, tanks, pipelines
• Buckling of Steel Shells European Design
Recommendations 5th Edition (ECCS – 2008)
8
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
General
• Built structural shells
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
General
• Built structural shells
Reinforced concrete
Steel
Aluminium alloys
Plastics
Glass
Timber
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
Structural typologies
Eliptic paraboloid Hyperbolic paraboloid
Circular cylinder/cone
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
Structural typologies
Shells are the most difficult form of structure to analyse and the form with
the most complex behaviour. As a result, all but the simplest conditions
must be analysed using computers.
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
Examples – Steel reticulated dome
US pavilion Expo 67 Montreal
Architect: Buckminster Fuller & Shoji Sadao
The 250ft diameter by 200ft high dome roughly
presents a three-quarter sphere, while geodesic
domes before 1967 were hemispherical. The dome
consists of steel pipes and 1,900 acrylic panels. To
keep the indoor temperature acceptable, the design
included mobile triangular panels that would move
over the inner surface following the sun. Although
brilliant on paper, this feature was too advanced for
its time and never worked.
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
Examples – Aluminium alloy reticulated dome
Spruce Goose dome, Long Beach, USA
Architect: R. Duell and Associates
Engineer/builder: Temcor
A - Aluminum cover plate with silicone seal
B - Aluminum gusset plates, bolted to struts
C - Aluminum batten secure silicone gaskets
D - Triangular aluminum panels
E - Wide-flange aluminum struts
F - Stainless steel bolts
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
Examples – Timber-steel free form grid shell
Multi-hall, Mainz, Germany
Architect: Mutschler, Frei Otto, consultant
Engineer: Ove Arup
The multi-purpose dome for the 1975 garden
show spans max. 60m with 50x50mm twin
wood slats of 50cm squares that deformed into
rhomboids.
1 - Form-finding model
2 - Interior
3 - Mesh detail (steel bands resist shear)
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
Examples – Timber-steel free form grid shell
Architect: Thomas Herzog
Engineer: Julius Natterer
Wood grid shell with PTFE membrane
The theme pavilion advanced the philosophy:
• Wood is the only renewable material
• Requires the least energy for production
• Use of wood maintains healthy forests
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
Shell Analysis
Curved
shapes Bending stress state
Continuous
Membrane stress state
Plated
Shell structures
Reticulated (bar structures)
• Continuous (or reticulated) shells
• Linear behaviour
• Non-linear behaviour
• Elastic
• Elastic-plastic
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
Shell Design
• Resistance
• Stability
• Highly sensitive to imperfections
• Buckling is a process by which a structure cannot withstand loads with its original
shape, so that it changes this shape in order to find a new equilibrium
configuration. This is an undesired process (from the point of view of the
engineer), and occurs for a well–defined value of the load.
• The consequences of buckling are basically geometric:
• The are large displacements in the structure
• There may also be consequences for the material, in the sense that
deflections may induce plasticity in the walls of the structure
Local buckling Global buckling
of a tank of a wind
turbine tower
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
Steel Shell Design: Codification
Conceptual design
Design for strength and buckling
Detailing
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
Behavioural phenomenology of shells
• Behavior of a given structure (slender!) can be controlled by design if
the three characteristic ranges of load-deformation curve are correctly
defined
• Pre-critical range P
• Critical point (or range)
• Post-critical range
Pcr Post-critical
Critical point range
Pre-critical range
P(0, Pcr] Structural stability
D
P > Pcr Structural instability
elastic
Buckling: plastic
dynamic
Introduction to Design of Shell Structures
Methods of Analysis
• Basic Equations
• Simplified Linear Shell Theory
• The Love-Kirchhoff assumptions (simplified model)
• The shell thickness is negligibly small in comparison with the least radius of
curvature of the shell middle surface (shell is thin)
• Strains and displacements that arise within the shell are small (products of
deformations quantities that occur in the derivation of the theory may be
neglected, ensuring that the system is described by a set of geometrically
linear equations)
• Straight lines that are normal to the middle surface prior to deformation
remain straight and normal to the middle surface during deformation and
experience no change in length (analogue to hypothesis for beams – plane
sections before bending remain plane after bending)
• The direct stress actin in the direction normal to the shell middle surface is
negligible (not valid in the vicinity of concentrated transverse loads)
