Structural behavior of a fully assembled cable-piercing ridge-tube cable dome with modular assembly ring truss

There is yet to be a fully assembled long-span steel structure system. This paper proposes a fully assembled cable-piercing ridge-tube cable dome (FCRCD) with a modular assembly ring truss (MART). A scale model of FCRCD with MART with a span of 10 m and a rise-span ratio of 1/10 was designed and manufactured, the static test of the scale model was conducted, and the finite element model (FEM) was established and analyzed. The structural behavior under different vertical loads was studied by static test and finite element analysis. Simultaneously, to further investigate the mechanical properties of the FCRCD in detail, the FEMs of the ridge-tube cable dome (RTCD) with MART and ridge-cable cable dome (RCCD) with MART were established and analyzed for comparison with the FCRCD with MART. The research results verified that the innovative FCRCD has good stiffness, stability, bearing capacity, and resistance to uneven load; the FEM method is correct, and the FEM analysis is accurate. The cable-piercing ridge tube (CRT) can limit the relaxation of the ridge cable to about 10%, improve the mechanical properties and tensioning efficiency, and reduce the prestressing loss of the FCRCD. The FCRCD is more favorable to the force state of the MART, and it is more suitable for long-span and super-long-span spatial structures and can meet the requirements of rigid roof laying.