Astroturf

An artificial grass surface. First developed for use in the Houston Astrodome after the
dome's natural lawn deteriorated.
From the Daily Telegraph, April 21, 1966:
"Houston had spent $11 million building its mammoth, air-conditioned Astrodome...
Now..[They are] spending $180,000 on a carpet of synthetic turf, called..Astroturf."
ASTM Standards
Performance or chemical standards for industrial materials and components set by the
American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM).
Crane boom
The outermost arm of a crane. During the construction of the Astrodome special cranes
with boom lengths up to 275 ft were used to lift truss sections to the roof's 210 ft high
peak.
cable dome
A shorthand phrase most commonly used to describe tensegrity domes.
Cantilever
A beam, girder, truss, floor or roof section unsupported at one end. Diving boards are
cantilevers.
Compression
A force or stress characterized by pressure or squeezing.
Compression ring
Section through the U. S. Pavilion's compression ring.

A structural ring that acts in compression. Compression

rings in pneumatic and tensegrity domes are located at the
roof perimeter and anchor the roof cables.

Berm
A mound of earth. The U.S. Pavilion's roof rested on an earth berm.
Strain gauges
Instruments used to measure deformations and stresses of structures.
Ellipse
A curve for which the sum of the distances from each point on the curve to two fixed
points is equal
Super ellipse
Ellipses with an exponent greater than 2.0. In the limit, as the exponent goes to infinity,
the corners of a super ellipse become square.
Erection tower

Towers used for the temporary support of elevated

structural elements.

fabric skirts
Detail of fabric/cable connection at
the U.S. Pavilion
 Fabric strips used at the U.S. Pavilion to connect roof cables to fabric panels above.

Fuller, Buckminster
American inventor of the geodesic dome and the tensegrity dome, among other things.
Funicular shape
The shape that a cable or tension structure takes under the action of particular loads.
Geodetic
The shortest possible line be drawn from one point of a surface to another, its plane of
curvature is everywhere perpendicular to the surface. Such a curve is called a geodetic
line.
from the New York Times Literary Supplement November 6, 1959 p.5:
With his geodetic domes and his synergetic geometry.. [Buckminster Fuller] is
designing..methods of enclosing space that others may one day make into an
architecture.
Geodesic dome
a dome built according to the principles of geodetic construction patented by R.
Buckminster Fuller
from the New York Times, March 20, 1959:
The geodesic dome combines the structural advantages of the sphere (which encloses the
most space within the least surface, and is strongest against internal pressure) with those
of the tetrahedron (which encloses least space with most surface and has the greatest
stiffness against external pressure).
Geiger, David
Inventor of the cable-stiffened pneumatic dome, and the first builder of a long-span
tensegrity dome (at the 1988 Seoul Olympics).
IBM-1130

The computer used to do engineering calculations for the

U.S. Pavilion's fabric roof.

Lamella dome*

A dome consisting of a series of

intersecting skewed arches made up
of relatively short members called "lamellas", fastened
together at an angle so that each is intersected by two
similar adjacent members at its midpoint, thus
forming an interlocking diamond-patterned
network.

Laminar flow
Smooth and regular fluid flow -- the direction of motion
at any point remaining constant as if the fluid
were moving in a series of layers sliding over one another without mixing.
Lateral loading
Loads acting horizontally -- wind or earthquake loads.
Membrane
A thin pliable sheet-like tissue. Pneumatic domes and
tensegrity domes use fabric to form their roof surfaces.

Pile
A long, thin element, such as a steel pipe or a w-shape,
which is driven into to ground and used in combination
with other piles as a building foundation.
Pneumatic dome
An inflated dome supported by internal air pressure.
Post-tensioned*
Embedding within concrete members high strength steel
cables (tendons), which are placed within cables and
tensioned after the concrete, has hardened, causing
compressive forces within the concrete. By so placing and
tensioning the tendons, the resulting compressive forces
can be so applied as to induce a bending opposite to that
caused by the applied load, thereby requiring less concrete.
Prefabricate
To manufacture sections of a structure in a factory or yard prior to their assembly on a
site, especially when the components are large or complex.
Prestressed
Tension applied to an object during manufacture or prior to some other treatment, usually
in order to counteract applied loads (as in prestressed concrete).
Purlin*
A horizontal roof member spanning between beams and trusses, and to which the roofing
material is attached.
PVC
polyvinyl chloride, commonly used for plumbing drain pipes.
space truss*
A three-dimensional framework used to span a rectangular area whereby the individual
members are so interconnected that a truss effect is achieved to carry imposed loads to all
four support sides.
Statically determinate*
Any structure whose reactions and forces can be determined by the following: the
summation of all vertical and horizontal forces acting on the member or framework must
be equal to zero, and the rotation causing moment about any point must be equal to zero.
Stratified
Disposed in layers. Placed in alternate layers with something else.
Tensegrity structure
A three-dimensional structure consisting of members under tension that are contiguous
and members under compression that are not contiguous.
From R. B. Fuller: Ideas & Integrities, 1963, p. 170:
Geodesic Tensegrity (my name for the discontinuous-compression, continuous-tension
structures) the ability to assemble unprecedentedly large, clear-span structures.
Tension
 A force or stress causing stretching. A constrained condition of the particles of a body
when subjected to forces acting in opposite directions away from each other usually
along the body's greatest length, thus tending to draw them apart.
U-factor*
Also called U-value or coefficient of heat transmission, it is a measure of the insulating
value of building materials, expressed in B.T.U.'s per hour per square foot per degree
Fahrenheit temperature difference between each side. The lower the u-factor, the better
the insulation.
Velocity