Effect of support settlement on ultimate bearing capacity of Zhoukoudian steel structure

Non-uniform support settlement slightly increases the elastic global stability and elastoplastic ultimate bearing capacity of Zhoukoudian's lattice shell structure, but excessive settlement can reduce bearing capacity when initial imperfections are considered. The study used finite element analysis (ANSYS) to model geometric and material nonlinearities under varying settlement scenarios, revealing that while minor non-uniform settlements may benefit structural stability, larger displacements pose risks without significantly altering the instability path.

Li, Y., Zheng, B., Ding, T. Y., Qu, W. X., Ju, J. S., & Zhang, Y. S. (2022). Effect of support settlement on ultimate bearing capacity of Zhoukoudian steel structure. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2368(1), 12015. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2368/1/012015