Comparison Between Membrane Theory and Finite Elements Analyses for Domed Shells Edged by Support Ring Beam

Abstract

Domes are back again in Iraq. They are early recognized with specific houses of those who consider them a symbol of Iraqi architecture, beauty and luxury at the same time. Nowadays, domes are widely implemented. Domes, built with brick, reinforced concrete or steel; separated or overlapped are widely implemented (5). In order to achieve fast and accurate dome designs, we must to be familiar with how domes behave under various types of loads and boundary conditions. This humble work illustrates the deduced results of membrane theory and finite element to address specific cases in which fast and easy membrane theory results cannot be adopted directly by recommending other ways in order to get an accurate implementation of membrane theory in harmony with engineering sense. Several types of loading applied on a spherical dome –as an example– in this research to get results which were analyzed, discussed and then recommendations were presented in this paper.