Analysis on dynamic response of quadrangular pyramid grid structure with supporting columns

In recent years, destructive earthquakes, such as the Wenchuan earthquake and the Lushan earthquake, have caused buckling of supporting members in large space grid structures and certain damages of bracing members, which attracted intense attentions of scholars to its failure mechanism. As a result, the conventional analyzing method, which only considers the characteristics of upper structure, and ignores the coupling effect between the supporting members and the upper structure, is reviewed. In this study, the grid structures with supporting columns are analyzed. With the regularly and obliquely placed quadrangular pyramid grid structures taken as the example, the seismic performances of grid structures with supporting columns of different stiffness are compared. In addition, the influence of site type on this kind of grid structure is evaluated. Consequently, the specific influence ranges from the varied stiffness on the grid structure under the impact of horizontal and vertical response spectrum are provided. Furthermore, the preliminary aseismic design methods are proposed for the two common types of grid structures.