Resumen: A horn-shaped membrane is known for his resistance against external loads owing to the
curved-form resistant system and tensile forces on the membrane. This paper focuses on an existing building, which consists largely of horn-shaped membrane units that have struts (internal support poles) giving the form of the horn-shape.
In the building, the extensive membrane roof of 23,000 square meters is divided into 28
blocks and each block (less than 1000 square meters) consists of basic horn-shaped units with a 6.0x6.8m grid. Each unit is point-supported on four steel-pipe columns with a strut in the middle to which suspension rods stretched from the top of those columns. The
columns arranged on the inside of the blocks to resist not against horizontal loads but
vertical loads and also function as vertical gutters. The resistance against horizontal thrust from the membrane is achieved through boundary beams and cantilever columns that are located at the edge of each block.
The authors report the shape-finding method, the stress analyses, the load-resistance
mechanism under additional loads and the pre-stressing method of this project.
Furthermore, this paper shows measuring results of axial forces acting on the struts, which were obtained from measurements during the construction and long-term observation after construction.
