Laguerre geometry for optimization of gridshell with specified force distribution

Abstract

For the design of gridshells consisting of continuous beams in two directions and quadrilateral faces to cover a large space of architecture, it is important to arrange each row and column of beams along a planar curve and ensure planar faces for constructability and cross-sectional compatibility at joints. It is also important that the gridshell is in equilibrium mainly with axial forces against the design loads; i.e., bending deformation should be avoided. In this study, we first find a continuous shell surface where the principal curvature lines coincide with the principal directions of membrane forces. For this purpose, we utilize the L-isothermic surface, which is a kind of membrane O-surface. Specifically, the generalized Dupin cyclide is used as the reference surface, which has an explicit form of membrane forces with a single arbitrary parameter against normal loads. Various force distributions are obtained as the parameter is adjusted without changing the surface shape. Next, the shell is discretized into a gridshell, and target axial forces are obtained from the section length of the covering region of each node. The axial forces are adjusted by optimizing the cross-sectional radii of the beams with pipe sections to realize the specified target force distribution. Since the Laguerre transformation preserves geometric and static properties of the L-isothermic surface, the force can be adjusted by a simple process without re-optimization to obtain an approximate optimal solution of the gridshell after transformation. The ratio of out-of-plane shear force to the normal load at the node is also evaluated to investigate the effect of deformation on the force distribution.