The present book has attempted to give an overview of the current state of the art in the implementation of tensile sur­face structures. The purpose of the work has been to permit the recognition of fundamental interactions between the production and the erection of flexible structural elements. The investigation of the factors affecting the construction […]

In order to avoid permissible stresses being exceeded, check measurements have to be performed on installed and ten­sioned membranes. The measurement of membrane stress is, however, problematic. Measurement of the strain with strain gauges is difficult to handle and evaluate. The strip has to be attached to the membrane surface when this is stress-free in […]

The best-known method of determining the force in ropes in steel erection is the measurement of the compression in hy­draulic cylinders installed in the flow of the forces during the pretensioning process. Various intermediate measurements are undertaken in the course of force introduction into the rope by hydraulic presses controlled according to force or travel. […]

One method of determining the forces in ropes is the mea­surement of strain, with the rope itself being used as force measurement element. To do this, an extensometer is at­tached to the rope in the unstressed state, which measures the initial length and the length under tension. This enables the force in the rope to […]

The assembling of different materials and the involvement of all parts of the structure in load transfer places high de­mands on the geometry of lightweight structures. The de­formations of the load-bearing elements in tension result­ing from form-active interaction limit each other mutually. The coordination of the differing strains of the materials is therefore fundamental for […]

Synclastic surfaces cannot be pretensioned by tangen­tial displacement of elements in the surface. They have to be tensioned by applying surface loading perpendicular to the plane. The pretensioning of rope hanging roofs is done by ballasting. This creates a loading condition, which en­sures that no compression will occur in the tension elements through external influences […]

Point loads can also be introduced into membrane surfaces by displacing or rotating the stiff primary elements. This ten­sioning process is frequently used for the erection of awnings, where the fabric is pretensioned by the tilting of the masts and the shortening of the stay and edge ropes (Fig. 356). The fabric is fixed to […]

Flexible edge details with ropes or belts running in sleeves can be pretensioned by displacing the stiff corner fittings (B in Fig. 353) at points. This can be direct pulling or pushing of the fitting to the anchorage position. With awnings, the dis­placement is mostly produced by shortening the stay ropes, which causes a rotation […]

The introduction of linear edge loads into the membrane surface can also be achieved by changing the position of the stiff edge beam. One example of this is the tilting of arch­shaped edge beams. This is an efficient method of tension­ing, which is mostly used with many parallel rows of edge arches. The membrane surface […]