Conceptual Design and Analysis of Membrane Structures

Other conference contribution, 2016

In this work one approach for formfinding and analysing tension membrane structures is described. Focus has been on the conceptual stage. For this the computer software SMART Form has been further developed, enabling the possibility to do real-time formfinding and analysis of fabric structures. The software is based on a method where the orthotropic membrane is modeled with a triangular mesh, where the mass is lumped on the nodes. As a computational tool dynamic relaxation is used to find the static equilibrium configuration for the structure. The advantage with this is that there is no need for formulation and manipulation of matrices common in the finite element method.