Effect of using bracing members on design of single layered ribbed dome

Braced domes with different forms are one of the most impressive and aesthetic structural systems. In recent developments of the material technology, structural members have higher strenght but smaller sections. The use of smaller sections reduces self-weight and earthquake load but makes structures more slender and braced domes especially if they are of wide span and shallow, need to be analysed for any possible instability that may occur. In this thesis, it is pointed out the importance of stability analysis of such structures after a short review of braced dome examples. For this purpose, the most prefferred type of dome, ribbed dome and schwedler dome are examined under asymmetric load combinations as the safety parameter during design as buckling factor determined by linear buckling analysis. During the examination, care was taken to calculate asymmetric loads to comply with the current regulations in design. In addition to providing the regulation conditions in design members, the importance of buckling factor check has been demonstrated especially in braced domes. When design results are considered, it is seen that the material quantity used in both models and the buckling factors are close to each other. However, there is a big difference between the models in terms of deflection. When non-flexible covering is selected, larger member sections will be required to ensure the rigidity in ribbed dome. The deflection in schwedler dome is see to be reasonable. In this respect, the schwedler dome was found to be more rigid.