Wind action evaluation on tension roofs of hyperbolic paraboloid shape

The need to cover large areas while maintaining unobstructed interior spaces is a permanent challenge in the design of medium and large span roofs. In compliance with international trends, this paper proposes anew a technology already used in the past for this type of application: tensile structures made of nets of tension cables. Although such structures meet the requirements of today's market in terms of lightness, innovation of materials, cost-effectiveness and lack of intermediate supports, tension structures are rarely used in Italy, due to the lack of clear regulations on the structural design and the determination of environmental stresses on complex shapes such as hyperbolic paraboloids. This research follows two consecutive steps: the first one aims at developing an optimized procedure of preliminary designs for the cable structure; the second one focuses on the study of wind action on these structures. The hyperbolic paraboloid is the chosen shape for a parameterization leading to an optimized design of this kind of structure. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.