force flow and initial form matching in free forms by changing the loading pattern of funicular forms

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Authors

Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning Shahid Beheshti University

Abstract

One of the problems that shell designers face in their design procedure is flow of force in free form shell. In this article a method is suggested by which via changing the loading pattern and the optimization process a closest match to original free form with well-defined flow interior force is obtained. Free forms are considered as shells when they can be loaded axially so that they can be fabricated in small thicknesses. Therefore, not every form can be defined as a shell, and structural form-finding is important in free form design. However, the mere use of form-finding methods has many limitations since these methods only seek to find the pure form of the bearer, therefore new research provides methods that, in addition to creating the possibility of more form diversity, also examine the dimensions of other free forms, such as investigation of construction methods and their materials.
This research presents a method that, by adapting the structure to the desired initial form, while applying minimal changes to the original form, allows the creation of diversity outside the range of pure funicular forms. These funicular forms are initially created using particle and spring method, and then, by changing the loading pattern, the funicular form is optimized to finally reach the desired defined forms. The difference of this funicular form and the designed form is measured in order to obtain the loading pattern of the closest bearing form. Finally, strategies of improving the process to get closer answers, and shortening the optimization process are reviewed. The results show that the initial choices of the location of points, the initial length of the springs and their initial weight have a significant effect on the convergence speed of the algorithm and this issue is very helpful in the expansion of 3D models.
Two dimensional forms are presented in this work to give a clear understanding of the proposed method which is extendable to three dimensional funicular forms.

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Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 21 August 2023
  • Receive Date: 14 March 2022
  • Revise Date: 20 January 2023
  • Accept Date: 19 February 2023