UAE Pavilion

Novum Structures www.novumstructures.
com
The Freeform Structure of the UAE Pavilion
at the Shanghai EXPO 2010

Soeren Stephan Feng Pan Yongqjan Huang

Novum Structures USA, China, France, Germany, India, Singapore , Turkey, UAE, United Kingdom
Novum Structures www.novumstructures.com
The Freeform Structure of the UAE Pavilion at the Shanghai EXPO 2010

Design & Build Specialty Contractor for Architectural Steel, Cable, Glass & Membrane Structures
Grid Shell & Cable Structures Freeform Structures Structures with ETFE Cladding
Seattle Airport, USA
Dali Museum St. Petersburg, USA
Tours Shopping Mall, France Wrigleys R&D Center Chicago, USA
Yueda 889 Shopping Mall Shanghai, China Old Castle Dresden, Germany

Holding Company:
Menomonee Falls, WI
San Francisco, CA
Sarasota, FL
Chicago, IL
Diss, UK
Wurzburg, Germany
Sangerhausen, Germany
Beijing, China
France
Istanbul, Turkey
Farnham, UK
Dallas, TX
Bangalore, India
Dubai UAE
Singapore
Novum Structures International Network
BB-System
BK-System FF-System KK-System
SSM-System AFP-System
CCG-System ECG-System
Selection of Novum Component Systems for Building Structures & Envelops

1. Introduction

2. Pavilion Structure

3. Grid Shell Geometry

4. Freeform Grid Shell Node Connector

4.1. Node Connection Bending Stiffness and Capacity Tests
4.2. Numerical Calculation of Node Connection Bending Capacity
4.3. Analytical Calculation of Node Connection Stiffness
4.4. Finite Element Analysis of Node Connection

5. Structural Analysis

5.1. Global Stability Analysis

6. Fabrication and Installation
Picture: Foster + Partner
1. Introduction
Design Architect: Foster + Partner, London, UK
Design Engineer: Halvorson & Partners, Chicago, USA
Architect & Engineer of Record: ECADI East China Architectural Design & Research Institute Co.Ltd.
General Contractor: CSCEC China Construction Industrial Equipment Installation Co. Ltd.
Contractor Freeform Structures: Novum Structures China Co. Ltd. in cooperation with
Novum Structures LLC (USA) & GmbH (Germany)
Pictures: Foster + Partner
1. Introduction
Pavilion shape is resembling 3 sand dunes as natural formations typical for UAE deserts like the
Rub Al Khali (aka the Empty Quarter) with distinct dune features gradually curved windward
sides, sharp ridges and almost flat leeward sides
Height of the southern dune is 20 m, height of northern dunes is about 18 m
Pavilion has almost circular footprint with a diameter of about 65 m
After the EXPO 2010 the pavilion will be disassembled & moved to Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE

1. Introduction







Southern halves of dune shapes (windward sides) are single layer freeform grid shell structures
Northern halves of dune shape (leeward sides) are inclined, straight -beams (horizontally braced)
Dune shapes are subdivided and supported by a central spine structure with portal frames every 6 m
Northern dune shape is additionally supported by 2 -beams in inflection zone of grid shell
Crescent shaped canopies with tension ring belt edge beams & entrance wall structures are
enclosing the northern and southern buidling entrances
Dune ridges are made of curved, large diameter pipes
Pavilion structure is supported on reinforced concrete
stripe foundation
Conceptual grid shell design by Halvorson & Partners was calling for SHS profiles 200x200x6 mm
To avoid extremely large node connectors , profiles were changed to RHS 240x80x8 (steel Q345)
Grid shell members are interconnected with concealed bolted Novum FF node connectors in order
to enable the diassembly, shipment and reuse of the complete pavilion structure after the EXPO
Cladding is supported by posts, bolted to the top surface of the node connector


1. Introduction







2 basic methods to develop a grid on continuous surfaces:
Surface Grid Development
Planar Projection Method Surface Partitioning Method
Boundary lines get subdivided into
portions of similar length, thus creating
orthogonal auxiliary grid on surface
Final grid is tied into this auxiliary grid
Planar grid is projected on continuous sur-
face and manually improved where needed
(suitable for surfaces with small curvature)
Grids created by those 2 methods have different specific properties:
Surface Grid Development
Planar Projection Method Surface Partitioning Method
Grid along boundaries is unproblematic
Resulting grid can appear slighly more
irregular, although this strongly depends
on the current perspective of the viewer
Resulting grid is usually evenly spaced and
balanced
Planar grid projection is not considering
boundary lines, thus creating problematic
grid zones along boundaries
Southern dune grid created with planar projection Southern dune grid created with surface partitioning
Final step of grid development is the identification
of local coordinate systems for nodes and members
based on the given grid panels:

1. normal vector of a member is the average normal vector
of the 2 adjacent grid panels
2. normal vector of a node is the average normal vector
of all adjacent grid panels
Normal Vector Node
Normal Vector Panel
Normal Vector Member
Normal Vector Node
Normal Vector Member
Normal Vector Panel

1. Introduction







Concealed bolted Novum FF node connectors, used for grid shell member connections, consist of:
- 2 forged discs 200x85 mm (steel #45) with individually machined faces as required by geometry
- each machined face has one threaded hole to receive a M24 or M27 bolt
- precision cast steel adapters (steel GS-20Mn5V) with top & bottom hole, welded to member ends
- concealed & pretensioned socket head bolts 10.9, fixing the end adapters to the 2 node discs
The semi-rigid behaviour of these bolted node connections has to be adequately considered in the
structural model - typically as a rotational spring stiffness at the end of each grid shell member

4-point bending test (stiffness & capacity)

Test
#
Failure
Mode
Ram Load,
at Failure
Bending Moment,
at Failure
1 Bolt 127 kN 76.8 kNm
(M24 bolts)
Bending moment capacity of the node connection
as a function of the axial connection force was
determined using an iterative numerical calculation
method assuming planarity of member end section
[Space Structures 5, Telford Publ. 2002, p. 759-773]
Calculations were performed for 3 limit state
conditions: elastic, plastic capacity and failure limit
Test results are conservatively close to the failure
limit bending moment

Initial parameters:
orig
it
orig
it
orig
it
Mz mz , My my , N n , 0 it = = = =
Strain parameters:
A E
n
o ,
Jy E
my
,
Jz E
mz
it
it
it
it
y
it
it
z
= c
= k
= k
it it 1 it it it 1 it it it 1 it
Mz mz mz , My my my , N n n A + = A + = A + =
+ + +
> Compression stress in the connection profile / Element force & moments
> Tensile stress in the bolts / Bolt force & moments
> Internal connection force & moments : N
<it>
, My
<it>
, Mz
<it>

> Deviations from given force & moments: AN
<it>
, AMy
<it>
, AMz
<it>

All deviations ~ 0 ?
it = it + 1
Stress distribution
determined !
N
O
YE
S
(M24 bolts)
The node connection stiffness can be determined using the measured load-displacement curves
The measured total mid span deflection is obviously a combination of flexural deformation of
the specimen and rotational deformation of the node connection:

The flexural mid span deformation of the specimen can be calculated as follows:

The rotational connection stiffness can be determined using a combination of the above formulas:

The average total mid span deflection in the tests with M24 bolts was 18.5 mm at 100 kN ram load
(equivalent to 60.5 kNm connection bending moment)
The corresponding node connection stiffness is 16110 kNm/rad.
Rot
Flex Total Rot
K
l M

= A A = A
2
( )
2 2
4 3
24
a l
EI
M
Flex
= A
( )
(
A

=
2 2
4 3
24
2 a l
EI
M
l M
K
Total
Rot
- total measured mid span deflection, m
- flexural mid span deformation of the specimen, m
- bending moment at node connection, Nm
- span, distance from support to support
- rotational node connection stiffness of (Nm/rad)

Total
A
Flex
A
M
l
Rot
K
- modulus of elasticity of steel, N/m
2

- moment of inertia of tube section, m
4

- distance of load introduction point from support, m

E
I
a
As an additional verification of the numerical
and analytical node connection parameter
calculations, a finite element analysis of the
test specimen was performed
The observed mid span deflection of the FE
model is only 80% of the average measured
value, due to little initial settlements of the
real specimen
This ratio was then used to calibrate the FE
model of the node connection used in the
structural analysis

1. Introduction







The conceptual structural analysis by Halvorson & Partners had to be adopted by ECADI considering
local regulations and all modifications made during the construction phase
A major update of the structural analysis was required du to the following:
- member profiles changed from SHS 200x200x6 to RHS 240x80x8 in order to minimise node size
- Halvorson assumed fully rigid node connections changed to real semi-rigid connection stiffness

A meaningful structural model of the grid shell portions has to include all other parts of the pavilion
structure as well therefore ECADI and Novum closely coordinated their structural models and
performed the analysis simultaneously (ECADI used SAP2000, Novum used Dlubal RStab)
The Chinese guideline JGJ 61-2003 Technical Specification for Lattice Shells requires that the ratio
of the critical global buckling load to the governing service load combination is at least 4.2
(determined in a linear-elastic buckling analysis of the structure considering global imperfections)
ECADI established in their structural analysis the governing load cases for the different grid shell
portions for the southern dune this combination was DL + WL45 + 0.7 LLroof + 0.7 Tincr (see below)
The global grid shell imperfections were generated by scaling the first buckling mode to a maximum
imperfection value of L/300 = 66 mm (L: span)
The ratio of the critical buckling load to the governing service load combination was finally 4.6 for the
southern dune grid shell

1. Introduction







Freeform grid shell structures in general (except of small ones) cannot be drawn and fabricated
using conventional methods due to time, cost, manpower and reliability constraints
Instead, interconnected parametric component models for all parts of the members and node
connections have to be developed both in CAD and CAM software programs used
Then instead of conventional drawings only relevant data and very few parametric drawings are
needed to design and fabricate all grid shell components
Node component fabrication:
CNC model data
transfer & check
CNC machining
and marking
Quality control
Crating and shipment
Member fabrication:
Parametric drawing data
transfer & check
Length and hole cutting
Adapter welding
Painting
Crating and shipment

Stabwerke auf Freiformflchen
soeren.stephan@novumstructures.com

Thank you !

UAE Pavilion

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