ADVANCED STEEL DETAILING

 

The structural form of the Beijing Olympic Stadium is best described as being reminiscent of a bird’s nest. The very irregular nature of the structure demanded new and advanced methods of designing and detailing structural steel sections in order to minimize the weight. To reduce the construction costs, the designers removed the top roof and enlarged the area of the roof opening, which reduced the total steel weight from 45,000 to 42,000 tons. 

The interwoven structural elements of the façade produce a single surface, upon which further elements are arranged in a close to chaotic manner to blur the distinction between the primary and the secondary structure. The roof is saddle-shaped, and its geometry has been created from a base ellipse. The outer surface of the façade is inclined at approximately 13 degrees to the vertical. The largest span of the steel structure is more than 343 meters.

Modeling and detailing the most complex and challenging parts of the steel roof took one year. Two Chinese steel companies, Huning and Jinggong, worked on the roof to produce symmetrical 3D views of its members and connections. They were able to do this by using the mirroring function in Tekla Structures software. A huge number of sections and views were needed for this irregular assembly in order to represent all the relations of each steel part.