On October 4th, air pillows for the ETFE film structure of Yujiapu Railway Station dome began to be installed massively. They will be inflated through special pipes, thus the silver “shell” will appear in the public view in Binhai New District of Tianjin by the end of October.
Yujiapu Railway Station, along Beijng-Tianjin Inter-city Rail, is the first underground high-speed station within China. The ceiling on the ground is a giant steel structure, 143 meters long, 82 meters wide and 25 meters high. Integrated with the surrounding green landscape, it is like a beautiful shell, and will become a landmark building in Binhai New District. Based on the design concept of combining steel structure and film structure, this dome is made of ETFE film material, a new kind of building material with good day-lighting and high safety factor. It is said that the whole inflation process of the air pillows will be monitored and controlled intelligently, and the computer will ensure the best state of the film material by adapting to the timely air pressure, illumination, etc.
There are altogether 783 air pillows for the dome film structure. They are different in size, with the largest 42m2 and the smallest 0.5m2, and the total area is about 7060m2. Every pillow is composed of 3 layers of film, with small holes in the middle layer to control the pressure of the two air spaces. Besides, with low friction coefficient, ETFE film has a good self-cleaning feature, and dust on the surface could be washed and cleaned by rainfall. Thus it also satisfies the requirement of a green, environmental and energy-saving railway station.