Case Study of Structural Design and Construction Process Analysis for an Aluminum Alloy Free Form Reticulated Shell of Nanjing Niushou Mountain

The aluminum alloy reticulated shell structure of Nanjing Niushou Mountain, the largest single-layer aluminum alloy reticulated shell in Asia, is 227m long from south to north, 130m spanning from east to west. In the design process, the aluminum alloy reticulated shells has been established, then the whole stability of the structure was analyzed to get the first six buckling modes and the safety factors through elastic and elastic-plastic analyses of the whole process. According to the complex construction conditions and the difficulties of construction for a super-large free form reticulated shell, a block fabrication accompanied by step-by-step launching erection process was introduced for economical and in-site safe construction. From construction economy, four different sliding systems have been prepared and compared to enhance the construction efficiency. Also four stages in each sliding system were assumed as their key construction steps through trial calculation and conceptual judgment. Thus, the construction process analysis model in each stage was analyzed and simulated respectively according to the key construction steps. The analysis results show that the safety factor of the reticulated shell structure meets the requirements of the specification, and that the selected sliding construction scheme satisfies the construction requirement on the special construction condition. This report provides an effective reference on future practical application.