Elastically shaped gridshells
Gridshell structures made of highly elastic materials provide significant advantages thanks to their cost-effective and rapid erection process, whereby the initially in-plane grid members are progressively elastically bent until the desired structural geometry is achieved. Despite the strong growing interest that architects and engineers have in such structures, the complexity of generating grid configurations that are deployable into specific free-form surfaces and the limitation of suitable materials restrict the execution of elastically bent gridshells.
Over the past ten years, several research studies have focused on methodologies to generate developable grid configurations and to calculate their resulting geometry after the erection process. However, the same curved shell surface can be reproduced by various developable grid configurations which, in combination with their material properties, exhibit different structural behaviours not only during the shaping process but also on the gridshell load-bearing capacity.
The objective of the project is to develop a new formfinding and optimisation methodology based on a mathematic definition of the grid and a structural analysis by means of FEM. On the one hand, this methodology should minimize the profile’s curvature, and consequently the high bending stresses to which the grid is subjected during the erection process. On the other hand, the analysis of the load-bearing capacity with FEM of different grids typologies should allow an optimization in terms of stresses and deformations due to external loads. In addition, a comparison study of potential elastic materials will be performed.
Bearbeiter: Elisa Lafuente-Hernández (Promotionsvorhaben)