The Structure of the Ice Sports Palace in Stockholm

Abstract

The Ice Sports Palace in Stockholm has a suspended roof, whose horizontal dimensions are 83 by 120 ms , without a single intermediate support. The structure of this roof follows the principles worked out by Dr. Jawerth, who has taken part in the design of it. The roof is supported by a series of cables, working in pairs, one with concave and the other with convex curvature. The cables are linked together with rods, forming a triangulated outline. The cables are sufficiently stretched to constitute a highly rigid structure, and are anchored in reinforced concrete blocks, situated at a depth below ground level. The roof cables are attached to the anchorage blocks by other cables, and in order not to interfere with the free circulation around the palace, the points of attachment of the cables are situated well away from the peripheral walls. Hence these cables have a relatively small slope. In this paper the author gives some of the theoretical arguments on which the statical analysis of the anchorage blocks is based, since the working loads on the main roof cables depend very directly on the displacements which the anchorage blocks may suffer under varying cable loads. These loads will depend, in turn, on temperature changes, wind, rain and snow loadings.