Second-order analysis and experiments of semi-rigid and imperfect domes

Since the recent introduction of second-order analysis in codes, engineers begin to realize the advantages of the second-order analysis in enhancing the safety and economy of the design output. The method is especially useful for design of complex structures like the shallow dome where failure is commonly due to snap-through buckling with the collapse load difficult to be assessed by the effective length method. In this paper, the second-order analysis is used to study the behavior and to determine the snap-through buckling load of the shallow domes. A comparison on the failure loads of a shallow dome between the laboratory test and second-order analysis is carried out to demonstrate the application of the second-order analysis. Further, the importance for inclusion of global imperfection in the analysis is demonstrated because the snap-through buckling load can be greatly reduced if the practically unavoidable and unfavorable global imperfection is included.