Prefabricated Shell Roof

Abstract

The roof constructed recently near Olten, in Switzerland, consists of a series of cylindrical shell surfaces, with skylights between the successive shells. It covers an area of 13.500 m², and the building is to be used as a storehouse and servicing installation for the Federation of Consumer Goods Society. The general nature of the design made it logical, from the outset, to construct the roof as a number of similar prefabricated units. This method had evident economic advantages. The repetition of similar cylindrical roof sections made it possible to reiterate also the particular constructive process which was adopted in this case. The prefabricated shell units have been reinforced with lateral ribs, which make them sufficiently stiff to be handled at the working site. Each unit is 25.20 m long and spans a width of 1.40 ms. The roof is made up of 18 such elements. A feature of this roof is that it has been subjected to a prestressing process, applied by cables, running along the extrados of the cylindrical surface of each unit. This improves the stability and strength of the shells, and induces favourable stresses which counteract noticeably the effects of the shear forces and bending moments. The edges of these shells have been reinforced by increasing the thickness of the ribs, thereby improving the end anchorage. In order to check the theoretical calculations for this structure, several tests were carried out on scale models.