Metrodome Roof Collapses?

[Dichotomy]

Until the factors that contributed to this are determined speculation, while intellectually interesting, is just that.  Speculation.   

[FiLtH]

    I cant imagine that roof was designed for any loading at all.

    They should play outside anyways. Makes em better...Pats for instance.

[68ZooM]

well someone who structurally engineered that Roof is going to have some explaining to do, wether systems failed to prevent the buildup on the Roof will have to be determined

[Dichotomy]

    I cant imagine that roof was designed for any loading at all.

That would be professional suicide for any structural engineer.  We don't know the factors that were involved but it will probably be released eventually and studied extensively.  Grizz is much more well informed on this area of expertise than I am so any speculation at this point is only that.  Speculation. 

They just showed it again at halftime and it looks to me like the fabric failed and caused a catastrophic failure across the boards.  What factors contributed to that are really difficult to ascertain at this point. 

But again that's just speculation.

[Masherbrum]

It's simple.  The weight of the wet snow exceeded the holding capacity of the roof and the heating space in between the two layers of fabric.

[grizz441]

It's simple.  The weight of the wet snow exceeded the holding capacity of the roof and the heating space in between the two layers of fabric.

Yeah but that's ridiculous from a design standpoint.  Either the fabric capacity was incorrect or the design snow loads were incorrect I would think. 

[Dichotomy]

Grizz,

I read an article this morning that said they were cleaning the snow off Saturday evening but stopped for safety reasons. 

[grizz441]

I wonder if it was designed to require constant snow removal?

[Strip]

The fact that the dome is 27 years old wouldn't have anything to do with it would it?

 

Engineer flaw my back side...

Strip

[Masherbrum]

Strip, great minds think alike.

[Dichotomy]

Don't know.  I asked the PE I work with what he thought this morning.  'Too much snow' was the answer    But he said if he saw anything in his periodicals or email alerts he'd forward the information to me.  

[Shuffler]

The SR-71 was engineered quite some time ago. Still as amazing today as it was way back then.

I think the failure may have been in the tests conducted on the teflon material. There is some reason they used teflon.... could it have been a thought that snow would not stick to it? Nobody on the outside will ever know. We have no insight on why they chose the fabric that they did.

[warhed]

...this isn't the first time that roof has collapsed due to excess snow...someone already provided a link that goes into detail about previous collapses

[Strip]

The SR-71 was engineered quite some time ago. Still as amazing today as it was way back then.

I think the failure may have been in the tests conducted on the teflon material. There is some reason they used teflon.... could it have been a thought that snow would not stick to it? Nobody on the outside will ever know. We have no insight on why they chose the fabric that they did.

Your comparing a high performance aircraft engineering to structural engineering?

One with nearly an unlimited budget no less....not exactly apples to apples.

Strip

[grizz441]

The fact that the dome is 27 years old wouldn't have anything to do with it would it?

 

Engineer flaw my back side...

Strip

27 years isn't that old.