S3: Experimental Structures » Hristo Kovachev

Weave_staircase

giombattista areddia — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 01:23:33 +0000

We started the staircase exercise with the idea of using active bending on a singular element, whom in repetition and connection with its replicates can form an interesting and organic stair.

Our first prototype made from wood clearly showed us that active bending with only one element is hard to do.

So we combined the first element with a second element, where both are bended true interlocking with each other providing stress with the structure. The elements interlock in four points providing five distances we could play with.

In Karamba we compared three different sections to find witch positions are optimal for a structural stair.

From the numbers generated by the software it was clear that the first section performed better than the others.

Making the model using the section positions showed us that in fact the structure was performing better. However there was still something missing.

Using galapagos we tried to find the further best geometry but the result was unsuccessful, so we come back to the first result.

After the beam analysis we found the better geometry for the row support, in order to reduce the My.

Connecting the sides of the steps with rope provided the missing overall stability of the system.

Conclusion: Going back and forth from physical model to digital model showed us the benefits of using both instead of just one for the optimization of a structure. Combining the strong sides of both methods is the wright way.

Beam Analyses comparing two structures

hristokovachev — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 17:39:00 +0000

We approach the problem comparing two different beam structures for the same 3D shape. Both structures have the same support points, loads and are made from the same size beams. After comparing the results form the two grids the conclusion is that moments and forces in grid 1 are smaller than grid 2 mainly because they (the forces) are shared between more elements. In conclusion Grid one will be the better static choice, however it will use more material ending with overall higher building expenses.

Defined Geometry Structural Assembly Structure Analysis

hristokovachev — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 14:18:12 +0000

For this exercise we created a semi complex shell and analysed it with the chosen four supports, gravity load and a specific chosen point load. In the structure analysis we compared that shell with two others using point loads in different positions in attempt to understand and see witch preforms better and why.

” O as Structure “

giombattista areddia — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 04:25:14 +0000

PROTOTYPE 1For the first prototype the starting point is the aggregation of four components with 
the same shape but different connections in order to develop the structure 
in x and y direction.

The components are connected in order to create a module, the modules aggregation create 
the structure.

The resulted structure create curved surfaces in both x and y directions.

The curved surfaces create arches, but the force distributions is different from an arch, 
the curved joints distribute the force to the central nodes in both directions, x and y.
The nodes become the most stressed elements of the structure.

PROTOTYPE 2

The second prototype is composed by two components, basically the same, one is straight, 
other one is bended.

The components aggregation create a linear structure, below is showed the first assemble combination.

The second components combination create a denser structure in order to reach an higher behavior.