摘要

When designing a tension structure the shape is not known at the beginning of the process. Form-finding methods allow the designer to obtain an initial shape from given boundary conditions. Several form-finding methods for tension structures are already available in the technical literature; all of them posses certain limitations and drawbacks and no single method is optimal for all problems. The engineer may select the proper combination of methods best suited to the designer%26apos;s needs. In this paper it is proposed a combined method to achieve satisfactory equilibrium configurations for fabric tension structures. The force density method (FDM) implemented with topological mapping (TM) is used as a search engine for the preliminary design, and a procedure that employs nonlinear structural analysis is proposed for final refinement of the initial equilibrium configuration hence allowing the use of the same analysis tool for both refinement of the solution and analysis under loading.

  • 出版日期2014-12

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