Abstract: To study the effect of joint stiffness on seismic response of single-layer cylindrical reticulated shell,ANSYS/LS-DYNA was used to build the reticulated shell models.Two types of models were built by 'Shell163 element' and 'Beam161 element' respectively.The key difference between these two types of models was that the real size spherical joint could be built in the shell element model,and this shell element joint load-carrying FEA(finite element analysis) result was close to the continuum element joint model FEA result.These two types of models constituted a group to be compared with each other.By changing the structure parameters(length-width ratio,rise-span ratio and span),3 more groups were gotten.Through comparing the top-point seismic responses,the conclusion is: when the structure parameter is changed,the seismic responses of these two types of models are changed obviously different;When structure parameter is a constant,the seismic responses difference of the two types of models are changed widely.So,it is recommended to consider the joint stiffness when seismic response of this type structure is studied.