Structural analysis and design of a large inflatable hangar for aircrafts

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Structural Engineering International on 2022, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/10168664.2022.2064403.

Buildair S.A. has designed, manufactured and built an inflatable hangar (called hangar H75) for the aeronautical industry at Jeddah Airport, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. H75 is the largest air-cell inflated structure ever built in the world, finally erected in July 2019. The structural analysis and design of the main body of the hangar has involved complex structural concepts due to the specificity of the structural elements employed, like membranes and straps that lead to a highly nonlinear mechanical problem, or the treatment of wind over the structure without a defined standard for inflatable structures. In this article, the structural concept and specificities of the structure are presented, as well as the design procedure for H75 based on numerical analysis, to fulfil the design requirements in terms of stress and deformation of the main body.

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities [MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033: Grant Number CEX2018-000797-S].

Peer Reviewed

Postprint (author's final draft)