The concrete containment structures have been widely used in nuclear power plants, LNG storage tanks, etc., due to their high safety and economic efficiency. The containment structure consists of a bottom slab, wall, ring beam and dome. The shape of the roof dome has a very significant effect on structural safety, the quantity of materials, and constructability; the thickness and curvature of the dome should therefore be determined to give the optimum design. The ring beam plays the role as supports for the dome, resulting in a minimized deformation of the wall. The main issues in designing the ring beam are the correct dimensions of the section and the prestress level. In this study, an efficient design procedure is proposed that can be used to determine an optimal shape and prestress level of the dome and ring beam. In the preliminary design stage of the procedure, the membrane theory of shells of revolution is adopted to determine several plausible alternatives which can be obtained even by hand calculation. Based on the proposed procedures, domes and ring beams of the existing domestic containment structures are analyzed and some improvements are discussed.