Abstract: Aluminum alloy has many advantages such as low density, good corrosion resistance, easy processing, high specific strength, and convenient forming. The density of aluminum alloy is about one-third of that of ordinary steel, and its strength is equivalent to the stiffness of conventional steel. Therefore, aluminum alloy structures can obtain larger spans, which is attracting more and more attention and favor from architects and structural engineers. In order to give full play to the advantages of lightweight and high strength of aluminum alloy honeycomb plates and overcome the shortcomings of low elastic modulus of aluminum alloy reticulated shells, this paper proposed a new type of aluminum alloy honeycomb plate cylindrical composite reticulated shell structure. The composite reticulated shell structure is composed of aluminum alloy honeycomb plate and aluminum alloy reticulated shell connected by locking riveting, in order to achieve the purpose that aluminum alloy honeycomb plate and aluminum alloy reticulated shell work together. In this paper, a cylindrical reticulated shell structure with a size of 4 400 mm×1 530 mm×1 100 mm was designed and prepared, and the bearing capacity test was carried out to study the stress characteristics and failure mechanism of the cylindrical composite reticulated shell. On the basis of considering the influence of double nonlinearity and instability, the nonlinear finite element analysis of cylindrical composite reticulated shell was carried out. The reliability of the finite element analysis method was verified by comparing the results of finite element analysis with the bearing capacity test. The results show that the main failure modes of the connector are that the corepulling rivet at the short span was cut off when the composite reticulated shell plate-bar was destroyed; the side span was pulled off by the core pulling rivet due to aluminum alloy warping; there is a trend of plate dislocation around the locking rivet connector, but it is not damaged. The failure modes of the aluminum alloy member include the fracture of the aluminum alloy member along the weak part of the opening at the maximum stress in the span and side span compression buckling. Aluminum alloy honeycomb plate also occurred degumming phenomenon in the larger bar deformation. Before the displacement of the loading point is 30 mm, the specimen is in the elastic stage and then enters the elastic-plastic stage. The nonlinear behavior of the cylindrical reticulated shell is mainly determined by the locking riveting performance between the aluminum alloy rod and the honeycomb panel. The bearing capacity of the cylindrical composite reticulated shell specimen is 6 951 N, and the load continues to decrease with the increase of displacement. The finite element analysis model considering double nonlinearity can effectively simulate the mechanical performance of the composite reticulated shell in the elastoplastic stage, and the deformation and mechanical performance of the composite cylindrical reticulated shell after instability can be well simulated after considering instability. The finite element simulation method proposed in this paper can accurately simulate the load-displacement curve of cylindrical reticulated shells. The calculation efficiency is high, the convergence is good, and the error of ultimate bearing capacity is about 2% . The locking riveting connection integrates opening and forming. Only positioning can use the locking riveting connection tool to form the locking riveting. The processing efficiency is the highest, the forming quality is guaranteed, and the stability is better than the traditional mechanical connections. In the future, " assembly line " production can be formed to improve the degree of building industrialization.