RESEARCH ARTICLE

Structural form-finding of bending components in buildings by using parametric tools and principal stress lines

  • Zhenya Yu ,
  • Hang Dai ,
  • Ziying Shi
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  • Department of Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China

Received date: 29 Aug 2021

Revised date: 26 Oct 2021

Accepted date: 13 Nov 2021

Published date: 15 Jun 2022

Copyright

2022 2021 Higher Education Press Limited Company. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Abstract

This paper aims to provide an efficient and straightforward structural form-finding method for designers to extrapolate component forms during the conceptual stage. The core idea is to optimize the classical method of structural form-finding based on principal stress lines by using parametric tools. The traditional operating process of this method relies excessively on the designer’s engineering experience and lacks precision. Meanwhile, the current optimization work for this method is overly complicated for architects, and limitations in component type and final result exist. Therefore, to facilitate an architect’s conceptual work, the optimization metrics of the method in this paper are set as simplicity, practicality, freedom, and rapid feedback. For that reason, this paper optimizes the method from three aspects: modeling strategy for continuum structures, classification processing of data by using the k-nearest neighbor algorithm, and topological form-finding process based on stress lines. Eventually, it allows architects to create structural texture with formal aesthetics and modify it in real time on the basis of structural analysis results. This paper also explores a comprehensive application strategy with internal force analysis diagramming to form-finding. The finite element analysis tool Karamba3D verifies the structural performance of the form-finding method. The performance is compared with that of the conventional form, and the comparison results show the practicality and potential of the strategy in this paper.

Cite this article

Zhenya Yu , Hang Dai , Ziying Shi . Structural form-finding of bending components in buildings by using parametric tools and principal stress lines[J]. Frontiers of Architectural Research, 2022 , 11(3) : 561 -573 . DOI: 10.1016/j.foar.2021.11.004

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