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F.A.A. Huijben VACUUMATICS Vacuumatically Pre-stressed Reconfigurable Architectural Structures Afstudeerrichting Structural Design & Architecture Afstudeercommissie Prof. ir. F. van Herwijnen Ir. G. Lindner Prof. ir. J. Westra Ir. R.P.G. Brodrück Datum afstuderen 26 februari 2008 Afbeelding 1 Vacuumatic Structure afstudeerbundel faculteit bouwkunde 20 Samenvatting Vacuumatics can be described as a flexible system of enclosing foils with structural (filler) elements that utilises the atmospheric pressure as a rigidifying tool by extracting the air within these foils. Their main advantage is the fact that they can be freely shaped and stabilised over and over again, creating flexible and reconfigurable structures capable of being optimised to specific conditions and required behaviours. This project can be described as a search for the structural as well as architectural qualities of vacuumatics, which led to the “ideal” contemporary application of vacuumatics as a reconfigurable moulding technique to create complex designs in concrete. Trefwoorden Vacuumatics Freezing” Shape Free-form Design Customisation / Adaptability Reconfigurable Concrete Formwork Afbeelding 4 Free-form Design - Customisation Our current society can be characterised as rapidly changing, merged with globalised technology and infected with individualism. Besides the latest architectural trends of customisation and the search for a degree of randomness in structures and buildings, it can not be ignored that free-form design and so-called blobs are very actual phenomena within present-day architectural practice. Furthermore, buzzwords like “adaptable”, “responsive”, “kinetic” and even “smart” and “intelligent” are more and more common in contemporary (building) design. A flexible and personalised living environment with changing identities will be inevitable. A rather “new” and relatively low-tech way to realize this dynamic environment may be found with the introduction of the so called vacuumatically pre-stressed structures, or “vacuumatics” in short. Vacuumatics can be regarded as a flexible system of enclosing foils with structural (filler) elements that utilises the atmospheric pressure as a rigidifying tool by extracting the air within these foils, quite similar to vacuum packed coffee. The created vacuum pressure (or negative pressure) causes the otherwise often incoherent filler elements to be tightly compressed and secured into their present configuration, hence acting as a sort of glue that bonds the individual elements rigidly together and (temporary) “freezing” the current geometry of the structure. The “final” self-supporting capacity of vacuumatics enables the production of complex organic shapes, capable of being adapted or optimised to specific conditions or required behaviours. For this reason, vacuumatics could be a “new” stimulant for contemporary designers and architects who wish for more than what current, often traditional, design and building methods can offer them. With this graduation project, a parameter study is carried out to determine on a qualitative manner the structural and geometrical behaviour of vacuumatic structures, by
Afbeelding 2 Parameter Scheme: Filling - Skin Afbeelding 3 Pre-stress Derivation: Direct and Indirect Component afstudeerbundel faculteit bouwkunde Afbeelding 5 Reconfigurable Formwork System concentrating on the individual properties of the two main components: the (enclosing) skin and the filling. The structural as well as architectural qualities of vacuumatics are further explored by means of several small scale models and prototypes, as well as a material study of the filler elements. The aim is to gain fundamental understanding in and control over the underlying design principles so as to be able to optimise structural assemblies to specific conditions and required behaviours. The behaviour of vacuumatic structures depends on the exact nature of the materials used. Although almost any type of filler material may be applied with vacuumatics, their enhanced structural properties in vacuumatic state are essential, since this determines the final capacity of the structure with regard to strength, stiffness and stability (and therefore safety). The vacuum pressure acting on the covering foils causes this skin to be tightly wrapped around the surface of the filler elements, hence resulting in a pre-stress of the vacuumatic structure. The skin in particular seems to be of big importance to the structural potential of vacuumatics, since it not only ensures the structure’s integrity (as it provides the essential air-tightness), its deformation also largely determines the distribution of the pre-stress throughout the structure. The skin deformation is mainly determined by the elasticity of the skin material, and to some extend by the compression (and thus shrinkage) of the filling. The pre-stress force acting on each (granular) filler element is found to be divided into a direct and an indirect component. The ability to adjust and control the reconfigurability of the filler elements (and thus the flexibility of the structure) by means of varying vacuum pressure results in the so called “reversibility” of the rigidifying process, enabling vacuumatic structures to be shaped over and over again. Afbeelding 6 “New” Shapes in Concrete The original “flexible” behaviour of vacuumatics in un-deflated (or “re-flated”) state opens up many possibilities with respect to the relatively low-tech realisation of free-form designs. In order to literally mould vacuumatic structures into a certain desired shape, some sort of morphological tooling is required that forces the filler elements into their “final” configuration. This process might be somewhat similar to the formwork with the production of concrete structures, but especially the ability to locally adjust the geometry has great potential with respect to its effectiveness and implementation into the current building industry. The hazard of damaging the enclosing skin and subsequently jeopardising the structural integrity of vacuumatics remains probably the biggest obstruction of introducing these structures into the current building industry as independent, primary and “permanent” load-bearing structures. On the other hand, this temporality and the advantageous characteristics of vacuumatics (the ability to be “free-formed”, to be adapted, to create a degree of randomness and to be repeatedly stabilised) seem to provide the “ideal” boundary conditions for a truly flexible, re-usable and most importantly reconfigurable moulding technique for the production of complex shapes and textures in concrete. 21
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afst.bundel 8 MEI 07 - Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

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