Interesting Structures - Award Winning Structure

Expertise - Interesting Structures - Indoor Stadium

INDOOR STADIUM AT RAJKOT

The stadium was built by Rajkot Municipal Corporation. It is having a play court that satisfies standards for international sports events. It is having a column free area of 40 m x 40 m, which gives an unobstructed view of the play court from anywhere in the stadium.
	This large area was to be covered by adopting such a structural system, which can achieve predefined objectives of appealing appearance, cost effectiveness, and ease of construction while using locally available materials, skills and equipments. Structural system adopted for the roof is double layered braced barrel vault in steel.
Braced barrel vault was adopted due to its aesthetics and economy in material consumption. The vault was idealized as a series of two hinged arches, laterally braced by horizontal and diagonal bracings. Structural system for the roof supporting structure is a series of innovatively conceived tripod shaped space frame in concrete.
	To take care of the thermal stresses in the large span steel roof structure, free expansion and contraction of the arched roof was allowed by providing a perfect hinge connection between the roof and the supporting structure. This stadium has won a national award for excellence in structural engineering in a competition held by American Concrete Institute – India chapter for the year 2005