Computational Design and Fabrication of a Bending-Active Structure Using Fiberglass:A Bioinspired Pavilion Mimicking Marine Microorganism Radiolaria

摘要

Bio-inspired architectural designs are often superior for their aesthetics and structural performance.Mimicking forms and loading states of a biological structure is complex as it requires a delicate balance among geometry,material properties,and interacting forces.The goal of this work is to design a biomimetic,ultra-lightweight,bending-active structure utilizing an informed integral design approach,and thereby constructing a self-supporting cellular pavilion.A bioinspired pavilion has been designed and constructed based on the natural cellular organization observed in Radiolaria,a deep-sea microorganism.The cellularity was mimicked via Voronoi tessellation in the structure of the pavilion,whose structural performance was evaluated using finite element analysis.Accordingly,funicular structure design strategies were studied with a focus on cellular distributions and concentration responding to areas with high structural stress.The computer aided custom designed pavilion was constructed with engineered,in-house fabricated fiberglass composite materials.The bending-active lightweight structure was also validated through material performance inquiry,a partial full-scale cellular assembly,and the full-size pavilion construction.This work contributes to the design approach comprising a bending-active form-finding schematic strategy to construct the elastic bending-active structure physically and simulate computationally within the context of nature inspired innovative lightweight structure design.