Feasibility study for the application of air inflated membrane structure in China National Stadium

China National Stadium, also known as “Bird’s Nest”, is the main stadium of the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008, which has successfully held not only the Opening and the Closing ceremonies but also the track and field events. A new problem of rain preventing is brought out to improve the utilization of the Bird’s Nest after the Olympic Games. The scheme of installing an air inflated membrane at the opening of the steel structure is proposed in this paper to solve the rainproof problem of the Bird’s Nest. The form-finding and mechanical analyses of the air inflated membrane are carried out. Comparison between the mechanical performance and dynamical character before and after installing the air inflated membrane structure is given. To verify the analysis results, based on the practical structure of the Bird’s Nest, a test of a 1:20 model membrane is worked out.