THE IST DESIGN STUDIO: a plan for action… by Manuel ... - In+

IST Design Studio October 2003_____________________________________________________________________________functional constraints established. The shape of such equipment may change during thecourse of its use, therefore requiring that suitable materials and construction techniquesare devised. The descriptive forms of the surfaces and solids are used in this context tosupport the construction of the finite element meshes required for the analysis and toprovide a geometric description of the shapes used. For this purpose it is required to useparametric surfaces, such as Bezier, Spline or NURBS surfaces that are controlled byspecifying the locations for a given set of control points. A particular aspect in thedevelopments that is pursuit in this project concerns with the control of the surfacedefinition points through the applied mechanics methodologies used in the design of thesmart structures and mechanisms.24