Ladder form Rib-Ring Type of Spherical Reticulated Shells: A Novel Type of Latticed Shells

A novel ladder form rib-ring type of spherical reticulated shell is put forward in the present paper. There are only circular members on the upper chord and only radial members on the lower chord. A triangular shear-force key composed of a horizontal and a vertical paunch bar connects the upper and the lower chord. Automatically parametric modeling of their lattices is given out in details. Structural performance of this kind of reticulated shells are analyzed and summarized. Comparison with corresponding single-layer reticulated shells is also carried out. Ladder form rib-ring type of reticulated shells in application to a practical roof system of Jiangyin swimming arena comes true.