3D-Printed Bending-Active Formwork for Shell Structures

Wang X., Tam K.M.M., Beaudouin-Mackay A., Hoyle B., Mason M., Guo Z., Gao W., Li C., Zhu W., Karsan Z., Kao G.T.C., Zhang L., Chai H., Yuan P.F. and Block P.
Architectural Intelligence: Selected Papers from the 1st International Conference on Computational Design and Robotic Fabrication (CDRF 2019)
Springer Singapore
2020
doi: 10.1007/978-981-15-6568-7_18

This paper presents a novel building technique for the formwork of thin shell structures with 3D-printed bending active mesh sheets. To enhance the structural stiffness of the flexible plastic materials, bending-active form is applied to utilize the geometry stiffening effect through the large deformation of bending. As it is the main problem to determine the final geometry of the bent surface, design methods with consideration of the numerical simulation is researched and both simulations via dynamic relaxation and finite element method are presented. Several demonstrator pavilions and the building process are shown to test the feasibilities of the presented building techniques in the real shell project. It is expected that this method could be applied into more thin shell projects to realize an efficient building technology with less exhaust of materials.