ITECH graduate Niloofar Imani just published the conference paper “Hybrid formation: tension-based assembly system for bending-active plate structures” as part of the Proceedings of the IASS Annual Symposium 2020/21 and the 7th International Conference on Spatial Structures "Inspiring the Next Generation" with co-authors Axel Körner, Riccardo La Magna and Jan Knippers.
The article is based on her 2019 ITECH M.Sc. Thesis Project "Hybrid Formation", which was developed in collaboration with Ahmad Razavi.
The article can be found here: ResearchGate
Congratulations Niloofar!
Abstract:
This paper investigates a novel assembly system that employs tension force to transform initially planar elements into bending-active plate structures. Tension is applied through cables connecting bending-active elements. The elements are designed through form planarization, tessellation, and stripe definition on an input geometry. The system offers the benefit of reduced joinery sequences by having minimum tension cables operating in both the joinery and assembly process. Moreover, since there is a correlation between the tessellation process and the arrangement of the cables on the input geometry in the proposed assembly system, this research followed a design-to-assembly workflow. This workflow includes a set of digital tools and various physical tests in small and large scale. Finally, the paper discusses the practicality of the system and further potentials.