Curved directly glazed steel structure

Abstract

ZJA Zwarts & Jansma Architects have designed a new light rail departure station in The Hague, The Netherlands. The spatial roof structure of the station is made of rolled steel rectangular hollow sections arranged in two independent layers rigidly connected to each other. A glass envelope covering the roof structure matches the contours of the steel exactly. Since the diamond‐shaped glass panes could only be attached to the outer layer of the steel grid, the panes (with edge lengths of approx. 1.30 m) are supported on two sides only. When optimizing the overall geometry, the double‐curvature area at the nose of the roof structure became a special focus. Knippers Helbig Advanced Engineering has managed to minimize the deviation of each single glass pane from the single‐curvature geometry to a maximum out‐of‐plane deformation of only 3 mm. Therefore, the project is a great example of how geometry development can influence structural design and enable new approaches.

Nonlinear Blast Responses of Thin Shell Roof Over Long Span Structures

“…The structure optimises a gridshell roof canopy with singly curved glass along platform level and double curved at the "closed end". It is 90m long and spans 17m across the platform, the maximum height above platform level is 6m and is formed of rectangular hollow sections for the mesh and cold formed laminated glass as the canopy (Helbig et al, 2016). The boundary conditions use one pinned connection on either side of the roof connecting to the edge beam to allow for the required rotation, the remaining connections are able to slide longitudinally, to allow for thermal effects (Helbig et al, 2016).…”

“…It is 90m long and spans 17m across the platform, the maximum height above platform level is 6m and is formed of rectangular hollow sections for the mesh and cold formed laminated glass as the canopy (Helbig et al, 2016). The boundary conditions use one pinned connection on either side of the roof connecting to the edge beam to allow for the required rotation, the remaining connections are able to slide longitudinally, to allow for thermal effects (Helbig et al, 2016). The laminate construction of the roof canopy uses 10mm plies according to Helbig et al (2016) and a (assumed) 5mm interlayer.…”

“…The boundary conditions use one pinned connection on either side of the roof connecting to the edge beam to allow for the required rotation, the remaining connections are able to slide longitudinally, to allow for thermal effects (Helbig et al, 2016). The laminate construction of the roof canopy uses 10mm plies according to Helbig et al (2016) and a (assumed) 5mm interlayer. The15kg blast will be located in the "closed" end of the structure where the danger to both life and structure will be most catastrophic.…”