CO met moa eer CM CeO iy PAA eC cn Computer Aided Design of Cable Membrane Structures CoN ee Sema RE eT pe eee eer eee eee rs or eo eee Peo ec etc ea) Pra aes ne Piro ti a oe mM one “ I feted WS ee) techniques; finite ele eon inen eae es membranes and geodesic eee ae Pe eee and parallel analysis and design; and pre-processing and decomp sition for parallel or distributed erm) TCC) MCL OU CACLG) VI e RRS mA ee) oe nec e postgraduate students working in the field of finite clement technology. The software described, including both the sequential and parallel source codes, is available vviathe authors' website. SAXE-COBURG PUBLICATIONS _ ISBN 978-1-874672-11-1 B.H.V. Topping and P. Ivanyi mw SAXE-COBURG PUBLICATIONSSiS aIS is (20k and Blockwork Structures clita Saxe-Coburg Publications Pern Engineering Computational Modelling of Ma: Eedited by: JW. Bull ics 2 Parallel and Distributed Processing for Computational Mechanics: Systems and Tools Edited by: BH. Topping High Performance Computing for Computational Mechanics Edited by: BAHL. Topping and L. Lammer ‘Computational Mechanics using High Performance Computing Edited by: BLH.V. Topping Finite Element Mesh Generation BALV. Topping, J. Muyile, P.Ivdnyi, R. Putanowice and B, Cheng Object Oriented Methods and Fi RI. Mackie ite Element An: Derivational Analogy Based Structural Design B. Kumar and B, Raphael Parallel Finite Element Computations BMV. Topping and A.l. Khan Domain Decomposition Methods for Distributed Computing J Kruis Computer Aided Design of Cable Membrane Structures B.HLV. Topping and P. Ivanyi SAXE-COBURG ‘PUBLICATIONS© Saxe-Coburg Publications, Kippen, Stirlingshire, Scotland published 2007 by ‘Saxe-Coburg Publications Civil-Comp Ltd, Dun Eaglais, Station Brae Kippen, Stirlingshire, FK8 3DY, Scotland ‘Saxe-Coburg Publications is an imprint of Civil-Comp Lid ISBN 978-1-874672-I1-1 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data ‘A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Figure 1.6 on page 8, ©1994, Elsevier Science Limited, Oxford, England, first published 4 Figure 20 in M, Barnes, “Form and Stress Engineering of Tension Structures”, Structural Engineering Review. v. 6.n. 3-4, 175-202, 1994, appears with permission from Elsevier, Figure 2.2 on page 24, ©2007, Professor P. Gosling, University of Neweastle, England, ap- pears with permission, Chapters 6 & 7 include extracts, ©2002, Elsevier Science Limited, Oxford, England, from P. Ivanyi and BAHLV. Topping, "A New Graph Representation of Cable-Membrane Structures Advan igineering Software, 35, 273-279, 2002, appears with permisssion from Else. Printed in Great Britain by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow Contents Preface 1. Introduction to Cable-Membrane Structures 1.1 Application of tensile structures 1.2 History 121 122 123 124 125 Early developments ‘Structural form Cable net and mesh structures Phuematic structures Membrane structures 1.3. Concluding remarks 2 Introduction to Computer Aided Design and Analysis of Cable-Membrane Structures 2.1 General properties of cable-membrane structures 2.2. The design process for cable-membrane structures 22.1 231 Shape definition Creating the engineering mode! Form-finding, Analysis ‘Cutting pattern generation Detailing 2.3 Overview of the design and analysis methods Grid method ‘The ‘Stuttgart-direct approach” 232 233 34 Force density method Dynamic relaxation24 25 2.3.5 Finite difference method 2.3.6 Finite element method 2.3.7 Other methods for form-finding 2.3.8 Analysis of cable-membrane structures 2.3.9 Summary of design and analysis methods Cutting pattern generation: overview Concluding remarks Dynamic Relaxation 31 32 33 34 37 Introduction Preliminary concepts Basic theory of dynamic relaxation 33.1 Velocity tracing 3.2. Current coordinates and displacements 3.3.3 Calculation of residuals 3.34 Boundary conditions or supports, ‘The general iteration 3.4.1 Initial conditions Stability of the method 35.1. Fictitious masses 3.5.1.1 Fictitious masses for cable and truss elements 3.5.1.2 Fictitious masses for membrane elements, 52 Damping factors 5.3. Kinetic damping 3.5.3.1 Starting coordinates after a kinetic energy reset Calculation of internal forces 3.6.1 Truss and cable structures 3.6.2 Membrane structures Form-finding 3.7.1 Cable structures 3.7.1.1 Uniform mesh net 3.7.1.2 Geodesic nets 3.7.1.3 Principal curvature nets 3.7.1.4 Simulation of compression 29 29 30 30 31 31 32 58 59 so 39 39 38 39 3.7.2. Membrane structures. 3.7.2.1 Uniform prestress 3.7.2.2 Non-uniform prestress 3.7.2.3 The finite element approach 3.7.24 The resolution of forces approach. 3.7.2.5 Computer implementation 3.7.2.6 Generalised formula for non-uniform prestress 3.7.2.7 Projected stresses Manufacturing details 3.8.1 Calculation of slack lengths 3.8.2 Cutting pattern generation 383 Geodesie strings 3.84 Unfolding and flattening of membrane elements 3.84.1 — Unstressing cloths Summary and concluding remarks ‘Model and Mesh Generation 4d 42 43 44 45 46 47 Introduction Geometric modelling 4.2.1 Membrane surface description 42.2 Ridge cables and geodes rings 4.2.3 Boundary conditions Finite element mesh generation AB. Structured m 43.2 Overview of the multiblock method sh generation 4.3.3 Meshing of the surface geometric blocks 43.3.1 Linear interpolation 43.3.2 Cubic interpolation ‘Common boundaries Local mesh modification Initial problem defi Conclusions on for form-finding. Parallel Dynamic Relaxation su Introduction a3a8 683 66 0 10 B B 4 8 n 9 82 85 86 87 88 89 89 89 2 93 96 7 98 98 101 10152 An introduction to parallel computing. 5.2.1 Algorithmic parallelism 5.2.2 Proce 5.2.3 Geometric parallelism sor farming. 5.24 Performance measurement 5.2.5 Programming considerations 5.3. Parallel dynamic relaxation 53.1 The communication scheme 5.3.2 A case study for the communication scheme 54 Concluding remarks Partitioning of Cable-Membrane Structures 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Some partitioning algorithms 62.1 The greedy method 6.2.2 Inertial method 6.2.3 Graph partitioning method 6.3 Graph representation 6.3.1 Dual graph representation 6.3.2 Communication graph representation 6.3.3 Bubble graph representation 64 Examples 6.5 Final comparison and conclusions Parallel Cutting Pattern Generation 1 72 13 74 Introduction Processor farming Element migration . 7.3.1 Distribution of the strips of cloth 7.3.2 Genetic algorithm for the migration of elements considering the boundaries of cloth strips 7.3.3 Organizing the element migration 734 Examples Improved preprocessing for parallel cutting pattern generation 7A.1 The graph partitioning approach 101 101 102 102 104 106 107 108 10 m2 us us ls 118 n9 19 120 11 122 137 138 141 141 142 12 143 144 4s 146 147 157 7.4.2 The optimization partitioning approach 743. Examples 7.8 Concluding remarks Multigrid Form-finding 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Advantages of the multigrid method 8.3 Implementation details 83.1 Generation of the meshes 83.2 The interpolation scheme 8.3.3. The iteration cycle 84° Example 8.5. Concluding remarks ‘Case Study Examples 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Dynamic relaxation program 9.2.1 Input data 9.2.2 Element types 9.22.1 One dimensional element types 9.2.2.2 Two dimensional element types 9.3 Validation of form-finding with equal, constant cable forces, 9.3.1 Equations of equilibrium 932 Results 94 Form 9.5. Practical aspects of geodesic strings \ding with unequal but constant cable forces, 9.5.1 Slackening of geodesic strings 9.5.2 Definition of geodesic strings 9.6 Cable-nets 9.6.1 Hyperbolic net 9.6.2 Hexagonal net 9.7 Cable-membrane structures 9.7.1 Conical surface 9.7.1.1 Formefinding with equal prestresses 9.7.1.2 Form-finding with equal projected prestresses . 158: 160 162 165 165 166 166 167 168 168 169 nm 173, 173 1B 173 178 8 4 175 176 178 180 182 182 183 183 134 186 187 188 190 193972 973 9.7.1.3 Form-finding with uneqal prestresses.. 9.7.14 Cutting pattern generation of the conical surface Complex example ‘Membrane dam . 9.7.3.1 Model generation 9.7.3.2 Results 9.8 Concluding remarks Appendices A Calculation of the area of a triangle B_ Normal pressure vector cl c2 c3 Block structure definition file format Introduction Entity definitions ata file format C31 Header section €3.2 Point entity definition C33. Surface entity definition C34 Link entity definition C35 Boundary condition definition C4 Examples for parametric definition Index Author Biographies Photographic Credits ~ 193 194 194 201 201 202 205 207 209 au 2 Qu au 212 213, 24 217 218. 20 222 231 233 Preface This book is primarily concerned with the application of new computational technol- ‘ogy to cable-membrane structures. The motivation for writing this book was the lack of significant developments in the use of new computing technology for this class of structure since the 1980s. The methods employed by industrial enterprises today are essentially the same as those developed over twenty years ago. This book is one of the results of a ten-year research collaboration with Dr Peter Ivényi, currently an Associate Professor at the University of Pécs, Hungary, My interest in cable-membrane structures was first stimulated as an undergraduate and postgraduate student of Professor Michael Barnes at the City University, London, Professor Barnes was an inspiring teacher and postgraduate advisor who has greatly contributed to the design of membrane structures over the last thirty years. He was the leading exponent of the use of the dynamic relaxation method for the design of ‘membrane structures. During my time as a postgraduate doctoral student at the City University, I was fortunate to share an office with Manolis Papdadrakis (now Professor at the National ‘Technical University, Athens, Greece) and David Wakefield (now Director of Tensys Limited, Bath, England.) Their research into dynamic relaxation was important (0 both the theoretical and practical applications of the method to membrane structures. In 1986 I spent six months as a Von Humboldt Research Fellow at the University ‘of Stuttgart, Germany in the Institute of Professor Klaus Linkwitz, This provided me ‘with a unique opportunity to work alongside the key researchers involved with an alter- native approach to the design of cable-membrane structures: namely, the force density method. I am grateful to Professor Klaus Linkwitz, Professor Lothar Grlndig (now of the University of Berlin), Dr Ulrich Hangleiter, Professor Joachim Bahndort (now of the University of Bielefeld, Germany) and Dr Matthias Neureither (now of Inge- hieurbiiro fir Vermessungen GEO-Informations, Mosbach) who all contributed to the research environment I experienced in Stuttgart. I also enjoyed my research discus- sions with Professor Ekkerhard Ramm, Professor Kai-Uwe Bletzinger (now of the ‘Technical University of Munich) and Professor Heinz Saler (now of the University of Applied Sciences, Karlsruhe) During the Autumn of 1986, my interest in membrane structures was Further stim ulated by visits to Horst Duerr (of the IF Group, Dettingen), Dr. Hans-Joachim Schock (then working with Stromeyer & Wagner GmbH, Constance), and the lateHarald Mihlberger (of IPL, Radolfzell). These visits were funded by The Camegie ‘Trust, Edinburgh and kindly organised for me by Dr Ulrich Hangleiter. They pro- vided the inspiration to organise an International Conference on Non-Conventional Structures, held atthe Institution of Civil Engineers, London in December 1987. ‘Since that time, my research interests have included genetic algorithms, neural net- works, structural optimization, and non-linear analysis. My interests during the last twenty years have always included membrane structures, especially with respect to how new computational methods such as parallel, distributed and grid computing may be utilised in their analysis and design. At the same time, Iam grateful to many of my students (at both Edinburgh University and Heriot-Watt University) who have con- tributed to this research activity. In particular I would like to thank Dr Asad Khan (now at Monash University), Dr Janos Sziveri, Jelle Muylle, Erik Moncrieff (now of Kur- venbau), Roderick Bly, Christopher Milne and Alessandro Boscarini. This book would not have been completed without the encouragement and support of Professor M. Ivényi and Professor A. Ivényi. Both authors wish to acknowledge their supportive role in the preparation of this book, particularly during the the last phase of the writing. We are also grateful to Rosemary Brodie for her help with the copy editing of this book. Tam pleased to say that my collaboration continues with both Peter Ivényi and Jelle Muylle, I sce this book as a new begining and not an end. However, our further work could not have progressed as far as it has without the open attitude of the many people mentioned in this preface who were prepared to discuss their ideas with me. But looking back now, I see that it all started in a series of lectures given by Professor Michael Bares, in the Autumn of 1973. T was very fortunate to have Michael as a teacher and advisor, which led to the writing of this book some thirty years later. Barry H.V. Topping Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom University of Pées, Hungary www bhvtorg.uk Chapter 1 Introduction to Cable-Membrane Structures 1.1 Application of tensile structures ‘The use of light weight cable-membrane structures is widely accepted and their use is continuously increasing in projects that require coverage of large areas such as storage buildings, exhibition halls and stadia. In the field of exhibition structures especially they have proved to be extremely successful and a considerable number of novel de~ signs have been introduced during the last twenty years, Cable-membrane structures have been used for: roofs and enclosures for buildings such as theatres and music stages; entrance driveways; parking areas; walkways; stadia or domes; airports; exhi- bition areas; temporary protection tents; circus or conventional tents: warehouses for storage and other innovative purposes such as temporary dams and antennae Many good structural examples can be found in references [8, 34,51-53,89] and the additional publications listed at the end of this chapter, The reasons for their wide acceptance include the following: ‘They are light weight and can be transported at a relatively low cost. ‘© These structures can be used to cover large areas at very competitive costs per unit area, since there ‘© These structural forms result in structures that can be fully st is no need to consider bending or buckling which results in very efficient use of the materials used. ‘© These structures may be prefabricated and can be manufactured in the most efficient method2 Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures * Provided appropriate and well designed structural forms are utilised these struc- tures can become very attractive architectural landmarks. 12 History This section presents a brief historical review of the development of cable-membrane structures. More detailed historical surveys can be found in references (33,34,72,91] 1.2.1 Early developments A membrane tent is probably the second most ancient building form in human history after caves. Tents in different forms can be found all over the world, throughout hi tory [34], for example in Europe as Roman military tents or shades for amphitheatres. ‘These structures were mostly erected as temporary shelters. In North America native tribes wandered and were able to carry their tents to new places as the seasons dic- tated. Another ancient membrane form used were the sails on boats; and the Bedouin tent (90] is another important example of a classic membrane form. Both of these forms (tents and sails) are still widely used today. However up to the nineteenth century membrane roofs were not significantly enhanced or developed any further. Their shapes followed the most basic forms. This lack of development may hhave been a result of the limitation of the available materials, because no material was available with a sufficient tensile strength to enable spans to be increased. The history of membrane structures in the late nineteenth century and early twen- tieth century is linked to the development of circus tents [75]. The use of cable struc tures is also apparent in ancient times where for example cables supporting small bridges were quite common or cables or ropes were used to contruct fishing nets. In the late nineteeth century the “breakthrough” came as larger structures were required in a post-industrial society. The tent concept was pushed to its limit for circus tents. Many significant developments took place, after the Second World War, in design procedures, materials, construction and erection methods, and of course computation, 2 Structural form Professor Frei Otto's book on tension structures [72], published in 1973, not only provided an extensive review on the then state ofthe art but showed how the strue tural form of many membrane and cable structures were related to either natural or biological structures. Otto [82] combined a professional career as a designer with that of a researcher. He was for many years leader of the Institute for Lightweight Structures (IL) atthe University of Stuttgart, Germany where he conducted extensive research on structural form and many other topics relate to lighweight structures. The Chapter I: Introduction to Cable-Membrane Structures 3 series of monographs published by the IL provide an extensive source material to this, research (see for example references (6,20,21,43,85,861.) ‘Techniques for classifying membrane structural forms may be found in a number of publications but most appear to follow the work of Otto and his co-workers at the IL. A classification given by Picker and Sedlak [76] is still useful today. A more dotailed similar classification, given by Hennicke, may be found in reference [42]. His classification divided membrane structures into non-stressed (passive) and prestressed (active) forms. These classes were then further subdivided according to their support types either compression or tension. Simple tent like structures can take the regular Figure 1.1: A single one tent at the Haj Terminal, Jeddah International Airport, Saudi Arabia, Architect: Lan Fraser, John Roberts & Partners, Lon- don, Engineer: Geiger Berger Associates, New York form of single, four, six and eight mast tents, the regular mutiple mast forms being exploited as circus tents. More abstract free forms became the exhibition tent forms uused from the 1970s onwards, Simple tent like forms supported on a ring or rosette provide the simplest of forms. Single tent forms like the one shown in Figure 1.1 for the Haj Terminal at Jeddah International Airport, Saudi Arabia, can be used to great cffect if the forms are repeated as they were in this Terminal shown in Figure 1.2. Details of the design of this structure can be found in the books by Berger [12, 14] The construction of this terminal, which covers 420,000 m?, was only possible because Of the availability of new, high strength materials. ‘Other tent forms may be constructed by inserting multiple support masts within a tent or constructing lines of masts supporting a series of connected cones as shown4 Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures ie 1,2; Multiple tents at the Haj Terminal, Jeddah Intemational Airport, Saudi Arabia, Architect: lan Fraser, J gineer: Geiger Berger Associates, New York hn Roberts & Partners, London, En Figure 1.3 for athree cone covered area or for longer sequences as shown in Figure 1.4 Research on the relationships between structural forms for tension structures and biological forms has played a si gnificant role in the development of new structural forms. The reader may find the followin ig references useful if pursuing this aspect [6, 36,45, 94,99]. Recent structures using organic forms are to be fi 90) ul in references (4, Cable net and mesh structures The post-war history of cable net structures is again linked to Otto with the desig for the German Pavilion for Expo 67 in Montreal (34,37], followed by the Munich Olympic Stadium, 1972 shown in Figure 1.5, The complex relationship between arci ural design and engineering realisation is discussed by Holgate [46]. The role of mode! making and a detailed account of the design of the Munich roofs was g Eckhout [31]. The form-finding and static analysis was undertaken by Linkwitz [64] nby and Argyris (5] respectively Chapter 1: Introduction to Cable-Membrane Structures 5 Figure 1.3: Small multi-cone tent by Stroymeyer Ingenieurbau, Konstanz, Ger The Munich Aviary (3, 10,28], shown in Figure 1.6 demonstrated how a distorted net may be used to take up a free form. A mesh of 3.2mm crimped wire with a mesh spacing of 60-65mm was utilised. A pantograph system, devised by Otto, of ables linking mesh clamps to the mast heads, shown in Figure 1.7 to relieve the stress ‘oncentrations created around the mast points [3, 10,28] was designed. In some cases, such as the King Abdul Aziz. University Stadium in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia, shown in F sn external membrane and an internal membrane lining suspended from the net. Inthe case of the Heart Tent, Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, the stainless st d with hand painted Here the net form and function is clear both externally and internally and the glass tiles give the building an almost religious f ture 1.8(a), the cable net was covered with ass tiles 1 net is cove A history of the development of cable net structures is to be found in reference [96] which provides a review of basic design shapes. References [23,96] provide usefull sights into the details of anchorages, supports and connectors for cable nets. 1.2.4 Pnuematic structures The history of pneumatic structures is related to the development of ballons and air hips. Figure 1.9 shows a balloon launch in 1851, but balloons had caught the public's ination since the first launch by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783 [77]. The need6 Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures Chapter 1: Introduction to Cable-Membrane Structures igure 1.5: Olympic Stadium Roofscape, Munich, Architects: Benisch and Oto Figure 1.4: Multi-cone tent form at the Hermiston Gate Shopping Centre, Ean Figure 1.5: Olympic Stadium Roofscape, Mannich, Arch burgh, Engineers: Ove Arup & Partners Engineers: Leonhardt and Andra8 Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures Chapter 1: Introduction to Cable-Membrane Structures (a) (b) re 1.6; The Munich Aviary, Munich, Architects: Gribl and Otto, Engineers. tare Hee, re 1.8: (a) King Abdul Aziz University Stadium in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia, Architects: Gutbrod and Otto, Engineers: Buro Happold and Ove Arup & Partners, (b) The Heart Tent in the Diplomatic Club, Riyadh, Architect: Otto, Engineers: Buro Happold Figure 1.7: Munich Aviary Mast, Munich, Architects: Gribl and Otto, Engineers. Buro Happold x jure 1.9; Balloon launch in 1851 at Kensington, London10 Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures John Roberts & Pare ‘ates, New York (b) Figure 1.11: King Fadh Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, (a) External View (b) In t rchitect: Ian s & Parmers, London, Engineer: Geiger Berger Ass ew York Chapter 1: Introduction to Cable-Membrane Structures Figure 1.12: Sony Center Roof, Berlin, Architects: Murphy/Jahn Architects, En gineer: Arups— Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures Figure 1.13: Dynamic Earth Building, Edinburgh, Scotland, Architect: Hopkins Architects, Engineer: Arups for an effective method of transport led to the development of airships. Perhaps the ‘most important of these was the Zeppelin built in 1910. Lanchester’s 1917, patent (77] for "An Improved Construction Tent for Field Hos- pitals, Depots and like purposes” was an important step in the development of pnue- ‘matic structures. During the Second World War many advances were made with re spect to balloons for military and weather observation as well as for defence systems to keep enemy aircraft at bay In 1956 Walter Bird [15] with his company BirdAir Structures started to develop i-supported structures. Among several structures they have developed the frst non- spherical air-supported structure, the US Pavilion at Expo *70 [38]. A history of pnuematic structures is included in the 1971 survey of air structures by Price, Newby and Suan [77]. Inthe late 1970s and 1980s there was much eoncem about the lack of building standards for air supported structures. The 1985 TASS re ‘ommendations [2] and the 1980 Institution of Structural Engineers Symposium on Air Supported Structures (1] were the first attempts to address this issue, Herzog [44] and Dent [26] provide useful background information to pneumatic structures. The paper by Liddell [61] provides an interesting engineering view of the Minnesota Metrodome ‘hich is an air-supported membrane roof held down with a grid of cables. An impor tant aspect is the design of the ring beam to support the cable forces 1.2.5 Membrane structures For the history of the development of membrane structures the reader is referred to the papers by Forster [33, 34], the book chapter by Habermann [41] and the book by Ishii [53]. As already mentioned, the scientific breakthroughs in the understanding Chapter 1: Introduction to Cable-Membrane Structures 13 and design of membrane structures was started by Otto {72,73,82] in the 1950s. Hi ‘work continues to influence many designers today. For a complete review including recent work by Otto the reader should consult references [65,70]. Between 1960-70, the Taiyo Kogyo Company [51,52] produced a large number of membrane structures in Japan, Some of the most recent membrane structures are the Japanese stadia for the Football World Cup in 2002 [8] ‘The role of international expositions in the development of cable-membrane struc- tures should not be under-estimated [10,37]. The history of the design of retractable roofs is linked to the Montreal Stadium Roof [47,87] and the use of air cushions to the Nimes Stadium roof [47,88] ‘The architectural design of cable-memibrane structures is related to key innovators, besides Otto already mentioned, the contribution of Ackermann [32], Hopkins Ar- chitects (7,25, 54], Samyn and Partners [7,81, 84], Cambridge Seven Associates [7], FIL [22, 56,57], Renzo Piano [57,74], and Richard Rogers Partnership (100]. The engineering design and construction of cable-membrane structures can be traced by following the developments undertaken by the key engineering practices and individ- ual engineers; Arups (30, 65,71, 92], Peter Rice [19,79], Buro Happold (28, 65, 98}, Jan Liddell (61, 62,62, 63], Selaich and Partners [17,47], Horst Berger [11-14], and Anthony Hunt Associates [49, 65,66]. The integration of the architectural and engi- neering design becomes apparent in many cable-membrane projects [3, 58, 69,95]. ‘The role of materials development and testing should not be underestimated, for these are essential for realisation of innovative designs. For information on these aspects the readers should consult references [16,27,40,48,78,93, 101]. Manufactur: cers and construction firms have also played a significant role in the development of new technology for example Birdair (50, 80], Ceno Tec [39, 83], Taiyo Kogyo Com pany [51,52] and many others The role of computational methods in the development of cable-membrane struc tures is less clear but it is evident that without computational methods many of the most innovative structures could not have been realised. A detailed account of the role of computational engineering in the role of cable-membrane structural engincer- ing design has been given by Wakefield [97]. In the next chapter the development of ‘computational methods in relation to cable-membrane structures will be reviewed. 1.3. Concluding remarks Key to the further development of membrane structures is the devlopment of new tech- niques for the computer modelling including the full environmental life cycle simula tion, the development of new materials and design standards. In Europe, Tensinet [18, 35,67,68) is currently playing a vital role in the development of these objectives. Inia Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures North America, the development continues in parallel [24, 50,91], This chapter briefly reviewed the different aspects and methods of the design of ccable-membrane structures. The remainder of the book concentrates on the computer aided design of cable-membrane structures, Bibliography and References [1] Symposium on Air-supported structures: the state of the art, The Institution of Structural Engineers, London, England, 1980. [2] The Working Group nr 7, JASS Recommendations for Air-Supported Structures, ‘The International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures, Madrid, Spain, 1985. [3] Addis, B., Creativity and Innovation: The structural engineer's contribution to design, Architectural Press, Oxford, England, 2001 [4] Aldersey-Williams, H., Zoomorphic: New Animal Architecture, Laurence King Publishing, London, England, 2003, [5] Argyris, LH., Aicher, W., Angelopoulos, T., On the Static Analysis of the Olympic Cable Roofs in Munich, pages 74-16, Zodiac 21: Tensile Space pneu- matic Structures, A review of contemporary Architecture, Ing. C. Olivetti & C,, Ivrea, Italy, 1972. (6] Bach, K., Bereiter-Hahn, J., Gutmann, W.R, Helmecke, J.G., Nachtigall, W. Otto, F, Raccanello, R., Schauer, E., Schill, R., I 9 Pneus in Nature and Technics, Institut fir leichte Fichentragwerke, Stuttgart, Germany, 1977, [7) Bahamon, A., The Magic of Tents - Transforming Space, Harper Design Inter- national, New York, USA, 2004, [8] Barnes, M., Editor, International Symposium on Widespan Enclosures, Uni versity of Bath, United Kingdom, 2000, [9] Barnes, M., Dickson, M., Editors, Widespan Roof Structures, Thomas Telford, London, United Kingdor [10] Barnes, MR., “Form and stress engineering of tension structures”, Structural Engineering Review, 6(3-4): 175-202, 1994, [11] Berger, H., “New Designs for Stadium Roofs", in Topping, B.HLV., Editor, Proceedings of the International Conference on The Design of and Construc. tion of Non-Conventional Structures, Volume 2, pages 133-138, Civil-Comp Press, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 1987. [12] Berger, H., Light Structures, Structures of Light, Birkhiuser, Basel, Switzer- land, 1996, [13] Berger, H., “Form and function of tensile structur Engineering Structures, 21: 669-679, 1999. U4] Berger, H., Light Structures - Structures of Light: The art and engineering of tensile architecture, illustrated by the Work of Horst Berger, AuthorHouse, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, Second edition, 2005, for permanent building”, Chapter 1: Introduction to Cable-Membrane Structures 15 (15) Bird, W.W., “Air structures - Early development and outlook", in Proceedings of the First International Conference on Lightweight Structures in Architecture, Volume 1, pages 545-564, Unisearch Limited, The University of New South Wales, Australia, August 1986. [16] Blum, R., “Material Properties of Coated Fabrics for Textile Architecture”, in Mollaert, M., Hebbelinck, S., Haase, J., Editors, The Design of Membrane and Lightweight Structures, from Concept to Execution, pages 63-88, Proceed- ings of the Symposium at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB Press Brussels, Belgium, 2000. [17] Bogle, A., Schmal, P.C., Flagge, 1, Editors, leicht weit, Light Structures: J. Schlaich and R. Bergermann, Prestel Verlag, Munchen, Germany, Second re- vised and expanded edition, 2005. [18] Bagner-Balz, H., Zanelli, A., Editors, Tensinet Symposium, Liberia Clup, Mi- lan, Italy, 2007, [19] Brown, A., The engineering contribution to Contemporary Architecture: Peter Rice, Thomas Telford, London, 2000, 20] Burkhard, B., Editor, /L J, Experimentelle Ermitilung von Minimalnet- zen (The experimental determination of minimal nets), Institut fir leichte Flichentragwerke, Stuttgart, Germany, 1969, partly in German. [21] Burkhard, B., Pankole, U., Wagner, J., Editors, IL 3, Biologie und Bauen (Bi- ology and Building), Institut fur leichte Flichentragwerke, Stuttgart, Germany, 1971, partly in German. [22) Capasso, A.,. “Light of Lightness - Lightness to Light", in Bogner-Balz, H., Zanelli, A., Editors, Ephemeral Architecture: Time and Textiles, pages 227- 236, Tensinet Symposium, Liberia Clup, Milan, Italy, 2007. [23] Chaplin, F,, Calderbank, G., Howes, J., The Technology of Suspended Cable ‘Net Structures, Construction Press, London, England, 1984. [24] Council, N.R.. Architectural Fabric Structures: The use of Tensioned Fab- ric Structures by Federal Agencies, University Press of the Pacific, Honolulu, Reprinted from the 1985 edition edition, 2003. [25] Davies, C., Editor, Hopkins2: The work of Michael Hopkins and Parmers, Phaidon Press, London, England, 2001 [26] Dent, R.N.. 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[32] Flagge, I., Editor, Ackermann und Parmer: Buildings and Projects 1978-1998, Prestel Verlag, Munich, Germany, 1998, [33] Forster, B.. “A brief history of cable and membrane roofs” (3): 6-10, 1980. [34] Forster, B., “Cable and membrane structures - A historical survey”, Structural Engineering Review, 6(3-4): 145-174, 1994, [35] Forster, B., Mollaert, M., European Design Guide for Tensile Surface Struc- tures, Tensinet, Brussels, Belgium, 2004. [36] French, M., Invention and evolution, Design in nature and engineering, Cam- bridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1988, [37] Pricbe, W., Buildings of the World Exhibition, Edition Leipzig, German Demo- cratic Republic, 1985, [38] Geiger, D.H., “U.S. Pavilion at EXPO'70 features air-supported cable-roof”, Civil Engineering, Match: 48-50, 1970, [39] Gipperich, K., “Planning and realisation of the Entrance Canopy of the ‘Flower Island” Mainau, Germany”, in Mollaert, M., Haase, J., Chilton, J., Moncrieff, E., Dencher, M., Barnes, M., Editors, TensiNer Symposium - Designing Tensile Architecture, pages 236-241, TensiNet, Vrije Universitet, Brussels, Belgium, 2003, [40] Gosling, PD., Bridgens, B.N., “Material Testing and Computational Mechan- ies: A New Philosopy for Architectural Fabrics", in Bogner-Balz, H., Zanelli A., Editors, Ephemeral Architecture: Time and Textiles, pages 75-98, Tensinet Symposium, Liberia Clup, Milan, Italy, 2007. (41) Habermann, K.J,, “The History of Membrane Building”, in Koch, K.M., Editor, Membrane Structures: Innovative Building with Film and Fabric, pages 16-45, Prestel Verlag, Munich, Germany, 2004, [42] Hemnicke, J., “Membrane Structures for Energy and Industry", in Sedlak, V., Editor, Membrane Structures: First Australian Seminar and Workshop on Membrane Structures: Design, Analysis and Construction; Second Australian Seminar on Practical Membrane Structures, pages 30-41, Lightweight Strue- tures Research Unit, University of New South Wales, Australia, 1983 [43] Hemnicke, J., Schauer, E., Editors, IL 10, Gitterschalen (Grid Shells), Institut fr leichte Plichentragwerke, Stuttgart, Germany, 1974, partly in German, [44] Herzog, T:, Pneumatic Structures: a handbook for the architect and engineer, Crosby Lockwood Staples, St Albans, England, 1976, [45] Hildebrandt, S., Tromba, A., Mathematics and optimal form, Scientific Amer- ican Books. Inc., New York, United States of America, 1985. [46] Holgate, A.. The Art in Structural Design, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986. [47] Holgate, A.. The Art of Structural Enginecring: The work of Jorg Scilaivh ad his Team, Edition Axel Menges, Stuttgart, Germany, 1997. [48] Houtman, R., “There is no Material like Membrane Mater Anup Journal, 1S I", in Motiaert, M. Chapter 1: Introduction to Cable-Membrane Structures 17 Haase, J., Chilton, J., Moncrieff, E., Dencher, M., Bares, M., Editors, TensiNer Symposium - Designing Tensile Architecture, pages 236-241, TensiNet, Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium, 2003. [49] Hunt, T., Tony Hunt's Structures Notebook, Architectural Press, Oxford, Eng~ land, Second edition, 2003. [50] Huntington, C.G., The Tensioned Fabric Roof, American Society of Civil Engineers, Virginia, USA, 2004. [51] Ishii, K., Membrane Design in Japan (1967-1990), Shinkenchiku-sha, Tokyo, Japan, 1991, in Japanese. [52] Ishii, K., Membrane Structures in Japan, SPS Publishing Company, Tokyo, Japan, 1995. [53] Ishii, K., Membrane Designs and Structures in the World, Shinkenchiku-sha, Tokyo, Japan, 1999. [54] Jenkins, D., Schlumberger Cambridge Research Centre, Michael Hopkins and Pariners, Architecture in Detail, Phaidon Press Limited, London, 1993 [55] Koch, KM., Editor, Membrane structures: Innovative Building with Film and Fabric, Prestel Verlag, Munich, Germany, 2004. [56] Kronenburg, R., FTL Todd Dalland Nicholas Goldsmith: Sofiness movement and light, Number No. 48 in Architectural monographs. Academy Group Ltd., Chichester, England, 1997. 57] Kronenburg, R., Portable Architecture, Architectural Press, Oxford, England, ‘Third edition, 2003. [58] Larsen, O.P, Tyas, A. Conceptual Structural Design: Bridging the gap be- tween architects and engineers, Thomas Telford Limited, London, England, 2003, [59] Leonard, J.W., Tension Structures, Behaviour & Analysis, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, USA, 1988. [60] Lewis, WJ., Tension structures: Form and behaviour, Thomas Telford Pub: lishing, London, England, 2003. [61] Liddell, 1., “Minnesota Metrodome: A study on the behaviour of air supported roofs under environmental loads", Structural Engineering Review, 6(3-4) 215-235, 1994, (62) Liddell, 1, “Innovation in Design”, in Leeming, M.B., Topping, B.H.V., Ed- itors, Innovation in Civil and Construction Engineering, pages 9-17, Civil Comp Press, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 1997. [63] Liddell, W.L, “Fabric dams for the Rhein Main Donau Canal", in Topping, B.HV,, Editor, Proceedings of the International Conference on the Design and Construction of Non-conventional Structures, Volume 1, pages 355-357, Civile ‘Comp Press, Edinburgh, UK, 1987. [64] Linkwitz, K., New Methods for the Determination of Cutting Patterns of Pre- siressed Cable Nets and their Application to the Olympic Roof, Munich, pages 76-80, Zodiac 21; Tensile Space pneumatic Structures, A review of contempo rary Architecture, Ing. C. Olivetti & C., Ivrea, Italy, 1972. [65] Lyall, S., Remarkable Engineering: Engineering Today's Innovative Buildings,ape ANGER Mesign of Cable-Membrane Structures Princeton Architectural Press, New York, USA, 2002. (66] Macdonald, A., The Engineer's Contribution to Contemporary Architecture Anthony Hunt, Thomas Telford, London, England, 2000. [67] Mollaert, M., Haase, J., Chilton, J., Moncrieff, E, Dencher, M., Barnes, M., Editors, TensiNet Symposium - Designing Tensile Architecture, TensiNet, Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium, 2003, (68) Motlacrt, M., Hebbelinck, S., Haase, I., Editors, The Design of Membrane ‘and Lightweight Structures, from Concept to Execution, Proceedings of the ‘Symposium at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB Press Brussels, Belgium, 2000. [69] Morgan, C.L.. Show me the future: Engineering and Design by Werner Sobek, avedition GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany, 2004 (70] Nerdinger, W., Editor, Frei Otto Complete Works: Lightweight Construction, Natural Design, Birkhiiuser, Basel, Switzerland, 2008, (71] Norridge, R., Ove Arup, 1885-1988, The Institution of Civil Engineers, Lon- don, England, 1985, [72] Oto, F., Tensile Structures: Design, Structure, and Calculation of Buildings of Cables, Nets, and Membranes, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 1973. (73] Oto, F, Rasch, B., Finding Form: Towards an Architectural Minimal, Deutcher Werkbund Bayern, Germany, 3rd edition, 2001. (74] Piano, R., Renzo Piano and Building Workshop, Buildings and Projects 1971- 1989, Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.,New York, USA, 1989, (75] Picker, E., “Circus Tents in Australia”, Technical Report, Lightweight Struc- tures Research Unit, University of New South Wales, Australia, 1981. (76] Picker, E., Sedlak, V, “Membrane Structures in Australia”, Technical Re- ort, Lightweight Structures Research Unit, University of New South Wales, Australia, 1982, (77] Price, C., Newby, F, Suan, RH., Air Structures: A survey, Directorate General of Research and Development, Department of the Environment, 1971, Pub- lished by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, England, 178] Pudenz, J., “Material and Workmanship”, in Koch, K M., Editor, Structures: Innovative Building with Film and Fabric, pages 46-65 Verlag, Munich, Germany, 2004. 179] Rice, P, An Engineer Imagines, Artemis London Limited, London, England, 1994, [80] Robbin, T., Engineering a New Architecture, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1996, (81) Robbin, T., “Membranes”, in Engineering a New Architecture, pages 8-24, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1996, [82] Roland, C., Frei Otto: Tension structures, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1970, (83) Rudorf-Witrin, W., “ETE-Foil: A New Material for Textile Architecture”, in Bogner-Balz, H., Zanelli, A., Editors, Ephemeral Architecture: Time and Tex tiles, pages 329-337, Tensinet Symposium, Liberia Clup, Milan, Italy, 2007. Chapter 1: Introduction to Cable-Membrane Structures 19 [84] Samyn, P,, Andreé, G., “Subway Station ‘Erasmus™, in Motlaert, M., Haase, 4J., Chilton, ., Monerieff, E., Dencher, M., Barnes, M., Editors, TensiNer Sym- posium - Designing Tensile Architecture, pages 242-254, TensiNet, Vrije Uni- versiteit, Brussels, Belgium, 2003. [85] Schauer, E., Editor, IL 21 Basics, Form - Force - Mass, Institut fir leichte Flichentragwerke, Stuttgart, Germany, 1979, in German. (86] Schauer, E., Editor, IL 41 Building with Intelligence, Aspects of a Different Building Culture, Institut fr leche Flichentragwerke, Stuttgart, Germany, 1995, partly in German, [87] Schlaich, J., Bergermann, R., Seidel, J., Sobek, W., “Some Recent Membrane Structures”, in Topping, B.H.V., Editor, Proceedings of the International Con ference on The Design of and Construction of Non-Conventional Structures, Volume 1, pages 305-314, Civil-Comp Press, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 1987 {88] Schlaich, J., Bergermann, R., Sobek, W., “The Air-inflated Roof over the Ro- ‘man Amphitheatre at Nimes”, Structural Engineering Review, 6(3-4): 203— 214, 1994, [89] Schock, HJ., Soft Shells: Design and Technology of Tensile Architecture, Birkhauser, Basel, Switzerland, 1997. [90] Senosiai, J, Bio-Architecture, Architectural Press, Oxford, England, 2003. (91] Shaetfer, RE. Editor, Tensioned Fabric Structures, A Practical Introduction, ‘Task Committee on Tension Fabric Structures, American Society of Civil En aineers, Virginia, USA, 1996, [92] Sommer, D., Sticher, H., Weiser, L., Ove Arup & Parmers: Engineering the Built Environment, Philosophy, Projects, Experience, Bitkhiuser Verlag, Basel, Switzerland, 1994. 93} Stegmaier, T., Planck, H., “Textile Material development for Textile Construc- tion”, in Bogner-Balz, H., Zanelli, A., Editors, Ephemeral Architecture: Time ‘and Textiles, pages 99-104, Tensinet Symposium, Liberia Clup, Milan, Italy, 2007 [94] Stevens, P, Patterns in Nature, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, England, 1977 195] Vandenberg, M.. Soft Canopies: Detail in Building, Academy Editions, Lon- don, England, 1996. [96] Vandenberg, M., Cable Nets: Detail in Building, Academy Editions, London, England, 1998, [97] Wakefield, D., “Membrane Engineering”, in Koch, K.M., Editor, Membrane Structures: Innovative Building with Film and Fabric, pages 96-123, reste] Verlag, Munich, Germany, 2004, [98] Walker, D., Addis, B., Happold: The Confidence to Build, Happold Trust Publications Limited, Great Britain, 1997 (99] Whyte, LLL, Editor, Aspects of Form, Lund Humphries, London, 12 Bedford Square, London, WC1, Second edition, 1968, A symposium on Form in Nature and Art20 Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures [100] Wilhide, E., The Millenium Dome, Harper Collins Illustrated, London, Eng- land, 1999. [101 Wille J., “Material aspects in PVC coated fabric”, in Mollaert, M., Hebbelinck, S., Haase, J., Editors, The Design of Membrane and Lightweight Structures, from Concept to Execution, pages 63-88, Proceedings of the Symposium at the ‘Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB Press Brussels, Belgium, 2000, Chapter 2 Introduction to Computer Aided Design and Analysis of Cable-Membrane Structures 2.1 General properties of cable-membrane structures ‘The geometry of cable-membrane structures can be classified according to their cur- vature. The surface of the structure can be single curved or double curved. Single curved surfaces are developable surfaces since they can be transformed into a flat sur- face. Double curved surfaces are not developable and they can be classified into two ‘more types according to their principal curvatures. When the sign of the two princi pal radii of curvature is equal the surface is “dome” shaped (as shown in Figure 2.1(a) and described as a “synclastic” surface. When the sign of the two principal radii of the ‘curvature are different the surface is “saddle” shaped (as shown in Figure 2.1(b) and described as “anticlastic", One of the most important properties of eable-membrane structures is that they do not have out-of-surface stiffness. ‘This means that they can ‘not withstand loads normal to the surface without changing their shape. The change of (2) Dome shape () Sade shape Figure 2.1: Double curved surfaces 2 ne aknad20 __ Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures [100] Withide, E., The Millenium Dome, Harper Collins Illustrated, London, Eng- land, 1999, [101] Wille, J., “Material aspects in PVC coated fabric”, in Mollaert, M., Hebbelinck, S., Haase, J,, Editors, The Design of Membrane and Lightweight Structures, from Concept to Execution, pages 63-88, Proceedings of the Symposium at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB Press Brussels, Belgium, 2000. Chapter 2 Introduction to Computer Aided Design and Analysis of Cable-Membrane Structures 2.1 General properties of cable-membrane structures ‘The geometry of cable-membrane structures can be classified according to their cur- vature, The surface of the structure can be single curved or double curved. Single ‘curved surfaces are developable surfaces since they can be transformed into a flat sur- face. Double curved surfaces are not developable and they can be classified into (wo more types according to their principal curvatures. When the sign of the two prit pal radii of curvature is equal the surface is “dome” shaped (as shown in Figure 2.1(a) and described as a “synclastic” surface. When the sign of the two principal radi of the curvature are different the surface is “saddle” shaped (as shown in Figure 2.1(b) and described as “anticlastic”. One of the most important properties of cable-membrane structures is that they do not have out-of-surface stiffness. This means that they can- not withstand loads normal (o the surface without changing their shape. ‘The change of (a) Dome shape (by Saddle shape Figure 2.1: Double curved surfaces ey_ Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures the shape can result in large displacements making the struct rents making the structures geometrically non- linear, Geometrically non-linear behaviour is characterised by the load path through the structure changing as the load is applied. This is a result of large displacements altering the the equilibrium conditions in all or parts of the structure, ‘The stiffness ofthese structures can be substantially increased by prestressing. Pre- stressing has some other beneficial properties such as it minimizes wrinkling of the fabric and it does not allow ponding of water. Appropriate levels of prestress can be used to control flutter. However the prestressing imposes further conditions on the shape of the structure, The equilibrium equation in the direction of the normal to the surface for a surface patch [30] is given by Lif F 1) where T; and 7} are the membrane forces in the principal directions, r) and ra are the Principal radii of curvature of the surface patch and F is the extemal load. When the external load is zero then and considering that the structure is tensioned in both principal directions internally (1; > 0 and T; > 0) therefore the sign of the radii of principal curvatures of the surface must be different to satisfy Equation 2.2. This is the reason why the saddle shape is the most common form for tensioned cable-membrane suctures. However when there is an external load (F 0) such as pneumatic pressure then the sign of sign of the radi ofthe principal curvature ofthe surface can be equal forming a dome shape. 22) 2.2. The design process for cable-membrane structures In the design of a membrane structure several phases can be identified: shape def- inition; creation of the engineering model; form-finding; cutting pattern generation; analysis forthe design loading cases; and detailing and construction studies. Though the phases follow each other in a linear fashion, several iterations of the design may be required and from each of the phases iis possible go hack to revisit a previous phase. 2.2.1 Shape definition ‘The definition of the shape of the structure is a task generally shared by the client and their architect together. The architect establishes the client's requirements, for example the area to cover, height clearance and data about the location of the future structure. It is important that the architect sketches the three dimensional shape of the structure considering all the requirements and some aesthetic criteria. For exam ple the geological and geotechnical data relating to the site for the structure must be Chapter 2: Introduction to Computer Aided Design and Analysis 23 considered to position anchorage points and masts. The shape defined should provide all topological information on the structure, such as the position of cables, masts, an~ Cchorage points and areas covered by the membrane. Furthermore the material type should also be selected at this phase. In the case of the material selection several fac tots should be considered for example: translucency determines the required amount of lighting and heat insulation determines the heating requirements 2.2.2. Creating the engineering model ‘The three dimensional shape specified by the architect must be converted into an en- gineering model and all structural aspects of the structure must be quantified at this phase, Historically the engineering model was a scaled mode! built according to the specification. However nowadays the model is generated using the CAD design sys- tem of a drafting software package such as AutoCAD or IDEAS. The CAD model is also generally used to define the discretisation for subsequent finite finite element analysis. When the finite element method is used the creation of the engineering model ‘contains the mesh generation step and the annotation of the mesh with properties such as material, prestres, loading, etc. The engineering model plays a key part in almost all further phases of the design process. The creation of the model requires good en- gineering skills and experience with the methods used for form-finding and analysis. Moreover the generation of the engineering model may also refine the shape definition and correct any problems which may cause construction problems, 2.2.3 Form-finding Form-finding is a process to find the equilibrium state of a cable-membrane structure at a given stress level and with specified boundary conditions. The types of numerical methods used for form-finding can be classified into two groups: ‘© geometric form-finders or ‘© equilibrium form-finders. ‘The geometric form-finders treat the membrane structure as a geometric surface which can be described by a mathematical surface equation. These methods can only be applied to simple structures and in most cases they cover standard geometries. ‘The simplicity of these structures guarantees their feasibility. The surfaces described in this way are often collected into libraries. ‘The equilibrium form-finding methods numerically compute the equilibrium posi- tion of the structure under the provided conditions. “These methods provide greater flexibility in the design process by allowing unconventional shapes or concepts to be analysed. Several numerical methods exist and they are reviewed in Section 2.3.4 Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures Figure 2.2: Biaxial testing machine, developed by Gosling [34] at Newcastle Uni- versity, England ‘The design of the structure must also be followed by an analysis, Inthe analysis phase several calculations are performed to verify t the structure satisfies all requirements of the building standards. In most cases it means that the structure is analysed at least under snow and wind loading conditions, Section 2.3 also reviews some methods to carry out this analysis phase. 2.2.5 Cutting pattern generation Usually the form-finding of a cable-membrane structure provides a non-developable surface. This means that th though this is peexsay forthe development ofa production plan othe sre ‘The production plan of cable membrane suctire alo calle acting pater, A inFgure 23 ‘The cable and membrane pices are usually ut roma rol of materia according to the cuting patter and itched or welded o form the specified surface when ape, Chapter 2: Introduction to Computer Aided Design and Analysis 25 4 Figure 2.3: The use of a physical model, constructed during 1987, by Duerr [29] of IF, Dettingen, Germany, to aid in the generation of a cutting pattern priately stressed, Today, the cutting pattern is usually generated from the equilibrium state of the structure by determining the stress free side lengths of the membrane elements in a plane. ‘To achieve this, the structure should be “disassembled” into pieces and then these pieces can be unstressed in the plane. To reduce the wastage of material the ‘most often used form is a strip of cloth with edges as straight as possible. Some of the cutting pattern generation techniques are reviewed in Section 2.4, As a final step in the culting pattern generation the size of the strips must also be “compensated”. The reason is that the final structure is stressed, while the strips cut ‘out of the membrane material are not. However the material of membrane structures is susceptible to creep due to temperature and loading. Creeping of the material causes Permanent strain in the structure which should be considered or “compensated” in the determination of the stress-free size of the strips. Usually the compensation factor is determined by bi-axial material testing, as shown in Figure 2.2 2.2.6 Detailing Before the structure ean be built several details should also be considered and de- Signed, for example:26 ‘+ the type of connections between different parts of the structure: ‘© gutters, water control systems; and the ‘© supporting structure as well as methods of fixing and anchoring cables, ‘The above list is not exhaustive and it may vary from structure to structure. For ex- ample the connections may require special attention from the design engineer, Most of modern cable-membrane structures are complex and visualisation and virtual re- ality models can be very helpful in the design process. Well designed connections ensure the smooth flow of the loads from one component to another of the structure Therefore particular care is required during the component design of fabric-fabric, fabric-rigid edge, fabric-cable and cable-cable connectors as well as cable-masts of rigid edges. For guidelines of the design of these components the reader is referred to the na tional building standard (for example Eurocode, British Standard) or to references (23, 24,49, 73]. Recent work by Tensinet to establish standards can be found in refer- ence [31] Furthermore as a final step, the design of complex cable-membrane structures may require a prototype construction study. This study ensures that the structure can be built as intended, for example that the cranes are placed at strategic positions, the structure is stressed in an appropiate sequence without tearing and no structural com- ponent becomes entangled in the cables. For example references [60,86] contain some information about the construction study for the Millenium Dome (London). 2.3. Overview of the design and analysis methods The following sections provide a general overview of the different numerical methods available for form-finding and for analysis of cable-membrane structures. The list is not exhaustive. 2.3.1 Grid method The grid method (52, 75,79] is one of the simplest methods for designing cable and ‘membrane structures. The method is based on the fact that when the horizontal forces are in equilibrium then the vertical force equilibrium can be used to calculate the height of the grid points. Figure 2.4 shows an example where the H horizontal force is @ given parameter and the unknown is the height difference Az. Considering all nodes in the grid results in a linear system of equations. To control the shape of the structure the height of the boundary nodes, the height of one or several internal points and the horizontal force can be varied, The method can be extended to cases Where the boundary is not fixed but a cable takes up the force or where the cables do not pass ‘over the grid points. In both cases additional calculation is required Chapter 2: Introduction to Computer Aided Design and Analysis horizontal / id ve ~—_~ *® Figure 2.4: The grid method 2.3.2. The ‘Stuttgart-direct approach’ “The ‘Stuttgart-direct approach’ developed by Linkwitz [55,56] is based on three facts: ‘© The difference between the elastically elongated and the initial length can be expressed by Hooke's law, which shows the relation between the intemal force and the elongation, ‘© The current length of each element can be expressed as the sum of the initial length and the elastic elongation. This expresses the compatibility of the ele- ‘ments. «In their final position the nodes of the elements are in equilibrium with their external forces. ‘These facts can be gathered into one non-linear equation. There are several ways to solve this non-linear equation, for example a Newton-Raphson iteration. However the method has some disadvantages, since the Newton-Raphson iteration requires an ini- tial geometry with initial lengths. In general this data is not available during design, because that would require a complete cutting pattern and fully designed structure. Linkwitz [55] introduced some rules to avoid this problem, but he also admits that sometimes “many trials may be necessary until a figure of equilibrium satisfying both requirements of form and forces has been found”. The force density method, dis- cussed in the following section, has been developed to address the difficulties with the “Stutigart-direct approach’.28 Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures 2.3.3 Force density method The force density method was first introduced by Schek [70]. The basis of the method is that the ratio between the force in the element and the length of the element is described by a constant. It is possible as a result of the fact that the force components of element j can be expressed by By 5 T= 7 (e~20) 23) i . Tiy =F (ew) 4) 1 ») 25) ‘where 7) is the internal force of element i, fis the length of the ith element, band ¢ are the two end indices of element i, When the frst term (the force density, T,/?,) in the equations is constant the Forces in the equilibrium equations become linearly depen- dent on the positions of the elements, These equations expressing the equilibrium of all points can be gathered together into one set of linear equation which can be easily solved. However in practical design additional geometric conditions may be specified ‘with regard to the shape of the structure. These conditions result in a non-linear prob- em. The solution of the non-linear problem can be accelerated by first obtaining a linear solution by ignoring the additional geometric constraints on the design. Then using the linear result asa starting point the additional conditions can be satisfied dur- ing an iterative process. An example to generate minimal membrane surfaces with the force density method was presented by Griindig [37]. This solution technique allows ‘great flexibility in the design of the cable structure. On the other hand the disadvan- tage of the method is that the final length of the cables, which is required in the force density evaluation, is not always known in advance therefore sometimes it would be ‘more convenient to specify the Force in the element instead of the force density. ‘The method is very popular and has been implemented and improved by several re searchers, for example by Mollaert [64], Griindig and Bahndorf (38] and Leon, Veron and Trompette [51,89,90]. A surface stress density method has been developed by Maurin and Motro [58] which can be easily and naturally combined with the force density approach. 2. 4 Dynamic relaxation ‘The dynamic relaxation technique was developed by Day [25-28] in 1965 for the analysis of concrete pressure vessels. The theory and application of the method has been researched by Barnes (7-18, 82]. Wakefield (95,97), Lewis [33] and later by Topping (41,65, 84,85], The mathematical basis of the method was reviewed by Pa- padrakakis (68] and later by Underwood [88]. Recently the method has been modified by Wood [99] Chapter 2: Introduction to Computer Aided Design and Analysis 29 ‘The main advantage of the dynamic relaxation method as a form-finding technique is that it simulates a physical process and the trace of the motion of the structure allows the study of the tension system similar to a physical model, The initial convergence is fast which permits quick, economical preliminary studies, The required number of iterations are usually large until convergence but the operations are extremely simple ‘The number of operations can be reduced by using an initial state which is close to an admissible solution, Other important features of the method are: ‘# the method is for static problems using a fictitious dynamic analysis ‘¢ no assembled structural stiffness matrix is required, hence it is suitable for highly nonlinear problems, ‘¢ the results are always expressed in terms of the current coordinates of the struc ture, hence the analysis of large displacements is possible, and ‘the same method can be used for the static analysis and form-finding of cable and membrane structures. ‘This book is mainly about the application of the dynamic relaxation method for the design and analysis of cable-membrane structures. 2.3.5. Finite difference method ‘The use of the finite difference method for membrane design and analysis was mainly limited by the nature of the classical finite difference method which is applicable for structured grids, Perrone and Kao [47,69] used the finite difference method on stru tured and irregular grids. They have analysed the inflation of square and circular membranes, where the initial geometry is flat. Liseka and Orkisz [57] also used the finite difference method on arbitrary irregular grids for membranes, Tworzydlo [87] extended this approach to allow arbitrary initial configuration, large deformation and various constitutive equations in the model. 2.3.6 Finite element method In the case of the finite element method, non-linear theory should be incorporated into the solution technique, since the cable-membrane structures are geometrically non- linear structures. This means thatthe stiffness matrix consists of two components: K=Kr+Ke 2.6) where K,, is the linear stiffness matrix and K is the geometre stiffness matrix. The simplest geometric non-linear finite element can be derived from the plane stress, constant strain triangular element of Zienkiewicz [103]. ‘The element was presented by Spillers er al [76] and Levy and Spillers [52]30 Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures Bosela and Ludwiczak [22] developed a quadrilateral membrane element with full rigid body capabilities, so that the “grounding” or false stiffening will not occur during rigid body rotation, For the nonlinear analysis of complex membrane geometries with abrupt changes (such as a sharp comer in a box) Wu et al [100] developed a three dimensional finite clement. To validate their method the clement has been used in the inflation of a ‘membrane box. When the finite element formulation is used for form-finding the Young's modulus is set to a very small value, typically between 10~* and 10-°, ‘The prestress in the cclements is also prescribed. This problem can be solved by an iterative method and the equilibrium shape can be achieved. In this case the equilibrium is ensured only by the prestressing, since the Young's modulus is negligable, but not zero. It is very important that the Young’s modulus is not zero, because in the case ofa flat membrane the in-plane stiffness would vanish with a zero Young's modulus, This method has been implemented in ADINA [2] by Fujikake et af [32] for membrane structures ‘Some other form-finding methods using a finite element approach were developed by Bletzinger and Ramm {20} and Shimada and Tada [74] 2.3.7 Other methods for form-finding Only a few analytical results exist for cable-membrane structures. Irvine [42] pre~ sented analytical solutions for the response of pretensioned cable networks subject to static loading. Pretensioned cable networks can be replaced by equivalent membranes. He compared the results of rectangular, hyperbolic paraboloidal, equilateral tiangular and elliptical membrane structures subject to static loading, Forms can be generated by minimizing the element surface areas as was demon- strated by Schwenkel [72]. Describing the surface as a series of triangular elements, he minimised the discretised function of the area of the surface. ‘The non-linear equa tion is solved iteratively. Zhang and Tabarrok [102], Gosling and Lewis [35, 36], Bletzinger [19] and Ohsaki [67] also used optimization methods for form-finding. Re- searchers tried to determine the optimal shape of certain cable-membrane structures, for example Moncrieff and Topping [66], Gosling [33] and Kawaguchi [48] 2. .8 Analysis of cable-membrane structures Some of the above mentioned methods are also able to carry out load analysis of ccable-membrane structures, for example, the dynamic relaxation method. However ‘mainly the finite element method has been used. Some papers considering the anal- ysis of cable-membrane structures are listed here (4, 5,21,22,32,43, 80, 81,83]. For completeness the following publications which consider cable structures only should also be mentioned [1,3.23,30,40,42,49, 50,62, 77,92-94. Chapter 2: Introduction to Computer Aided | ssign and Analysis 31 methods 2.3.9 Summary of design and analy: 1 must be noted, that the methods described in this chapter are mainly developed or used by civil engineers. However, there is another research community in science where fabric “structures” are modelled as shell elements, typically for clothing. One of the reasons for the different approach is that when the fabric is modelled as a shell ‘element the target of the analysis is different from the larget of a civil engineering analysis. In the case of the shell formulation the fabric may not be prestressed at all; often it hangs from a support or is draped over a surface [78]. In this case the analyst is only interested in the final shape rather than a load-deflection curve. On the other hand in the civil engineering practice all membrane structures are stressed or prestressed t0 avoid wrinkling of the membrane. In spite all these differences the civil engineering research may converge with the other community since for example more research has started on the modelling of wrinkling membranes by Miller eral (61]. Kang and Im [45,46], Ayai and Steigmann (6] and Miyamura [63]. 2.4 Cutting pattern generation: overview Historically cutting patterns for the fabrication of cable-membrane structures has been determined by model measurements. In the simplest form the dimensions may be scaled from the model, which has strips of tracing paper pasted to the surface, as shown in Figure 2.3. ‘Three methods are discussed by Linkwitz [54] based on model measurements for cable nets. In the first method a photograph is taken perpendicular to the surface of a built scale model. The photograph “is enlarged to scale, mounted successively and traced on to tracing paper”. However, as Linkwitz points out, this method does not ‘generally provide sufficient accuracy. The other method suggested by Linkwitz [54] is based on photogrammetry which ensures accuracy. The last method is an analytical method, basically the ‘Stutigart-direct approach’ (see section 2.3.2). ‘Schwenkel [71] presented the analytical equivalent of this method. In the analytical method the geometry of the structure is specified by a group of points which form a regular mesh. The position of the points is adjusted in such a way that they trace a ‘geodesic line over the surface of the membrane. The geodesic lines enclose strips of loth, Then the points of the strips are further adjusted using the least-square method to transform the strips to a developable surface. All current cutting pattern generation methods are based on the same principal that ‘once geodesic lines are determined then the formed strips may be tranformed (0 a plane. For example Hangleiter and Grindig [39] used this method. However, they did not require that the points form a regular mesh (as Schwenkel [71]) but they have used a Delaunay triangulation of the surface points to describe the surface. Is is also possible to describe a surface mathematically. For this case Ishii [44] derived a set32 __Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures of differential equations to obtain geodesic lines on the surface. By using differe geometry Williams [98] derived a method for simultaneous form-finding and cutting pattem generation for air-supported structures. In his method the points can move in three directions: normal to the surface according tothe equilibrium equation, parallel with and perpendicular to the geodesic lines on the surface. The method iteratively adjust the position of the points to satisty all conditions. In another approach virtual “geodesic strings’ are explicitly included in the form- finding model. ‘The concept of these strings is due to Williams but their practical implementation was first realised by Wakefield [96,97]. In this procedure “geodesic strings’ are incorporated along seam lines. These “strings” have the effect of holding the mesh in place and stopping the elements from spreading out over the surface of the membrane therefore atthe end of the form-finding the strips of cloth are realy available. Another method using geodesic lines was presented more recently by Xia and Meck [101]. In their method their mesh contains “geodesi tees” ora topological description of geodesic lines in the mesh. During form-finding after a number of itera- tions the postions of the points forming the topological geodesic tees are adjusted in such a way that they will trace the actual geodesic line inthe new shape, The iteration continues until form-finding converges and the geodesie tees form the actual geodesic line over the surface. Most of the above methods require thatthe strips bounded by the geodesic lines are developable surfaces or they are transformed into one either by retiangulating or using a least-square method as descibed by Schwenkel (71. Similarly, the method de- scribed by Maurin and Moto [59] uses a theoretical formulation and the least-square ‘method to minimize the distortions ofthe fattened stips while alo allowing the use of non- Truss Elements > Cable Elements (ie no compression elements) > Beam Elements [10,31] > Plane Stress/Plane Strain Constant Stress Triangular Elements (3 nodes) > Constant Moment Plate Elements [5] (see reference [19] for a further dis- ‘cussion of this element) ‘+ For form-finding and shape design © Truss Elements (of constant force or force density) > Cable Elements (of constant tension force) > Beam Elements (of constant moment) > Plane Stress/Strain triangular elements (of constant stress with possible warp and weft specification) Geodesic Strings (for control of seam lines) v 3.3 Basic theory of dynamic relaxation ‘The method calculates the dynamic behaviour of the structure by direct application of Newton's second law which states that she rate of change of momentum of a body is Proportional tothe applied force and takes place in the direction of the applied force”. In this case the mass of the structure is assumed to be concentrated at the joints and. an additional viscous damping term which is proportional to the velocity of the joint is included in the formulation ‘Since the dynamic motion is of no interest to the analyst fictitious masses may be assigned to each joint or degree of freedom. This enables the path to equilibrium to bbe optimised. At any time f the out of balance or residual force in the + coordinate direction at joint may be expressed as follows Ri = Murthy + Coe thy (G2) where: i, isthe residual force (ie out of balance force) at time tin the « direction atjoint i, Miz isthe fictitious mass a joint ‘inthe x direction, Ca isthe viscous damping factor for joint iin the ¢ direction and vf, 0], are the velocity and acceleration at time t in the x direction at joint i. The viscous damping term C;, vf i proportional tothe velocity, but, in an opposite direction 3.3.1 Velocity tracing “The analysis traces the behaviour ofthe structure aa series of points in time t, t+ At, 1+2A1, 14344, .. etc. Over any time step, At, the velocity is assumed to vary linearly with time. Hence the average velocity overtime step At at time step tis given by wea) pa a3) and th acelration is assumed constant over the time sep hence i, ~ (sea af) a an ‘Substituting the terms for v and i from Equations 3.3 and 3.4 into Equation (3.2) the result is (urna aan) 4 Se (arm ee) sy Ry A Bt which shows that the integration scheme is overlapping because the residuals are cal- culated at the end of each time step and the velocities and accelerations are calculated atthe halftime step. «© Residuals are calculated at the ends of time intervals: 0, At, At, 2At, GAN. AD, Velocities are calculated at the mid points of time intervals; At/2, 3At/2, BA/2,-..(¢ — At/2), (t+ AU/2). (0+ 31/2),Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures ‘The rearrangment of Equation 3.5 enables the calculation of the velocity at the new time step (f + At/2) from the velocity of the previous time step (¢ ~ At/2) any _ te-auns (Mux/Ot— Ciel?) | pu 1) « ee (i re.R) **rngarea) 3.3.2, Current coordinates and placements Using Equation 3.6 the displacement of joint inthe « direction during time interval from ¢ to (t + At) is given by Balt = ag. often) G7 ‘and the current coordinates may be expressed as xit*8 = af + At. ofthe) 38) ‘Similar equations can be written for the y and = coordinate directions, 3.3.3. Calculation of residuals Once the current coordinates have been determined using Equation 3, forces (7) should be determined for each element type. The calculation of internal forces is discussed in Section 3.6, The internal forces ae calculated at the joints where the residuals are determined. The contribution of each element connected to joint iis summed with the applied loading F; to give the residual force at time (t + At). For ‘example in the x direction RE = B+ OT 69 ‘where m represents the indices of all elements connected to joint i. Similar equations ‘may be written for the y and 2 coordinate directions. Note, that the current geometry should be used to calculate the components of the residual forces if the structure is geometrically non-linear, 3.3.4 Boundary conditions or supports Boundary conditions may be imposed by assigning large masses to fixed joints. Hence for a fixed degree of freedom n at joint i My = 10.08 G.10) ‘The other alternatives are that at the fixed nodes either the residual forces or the ve~ locities and the displacements are set to zero explicitly in the direction of fixity, For example in Equation 3.9 Fi, = 0.0 for any time step. Chapter 3: Dynamic Relaxation a ee 3.4. The general iteration “The method of dynamic relaxation isan iterative algorithm which consists of two main procedures: ‘ Calculation of the out of balance forces (residual forces) at each node of the structure using Equation 3.9. The residuals are initially equal to the applied loading unless there is some prestress in the structure ‘* Calculation of the nodal velocities using Equation 3.6 then using Equation 3.8, the coordinates of the nodes can be updated ‘The general cycle of the iterative process is shown in Figure 3.1. The convergence ‘et inital conditions, Kinetic energy zero for each element 2, | determine residuals From stresses and loads | "foreach node 3, determine velocities & update coordinates determine current Iinetic enensy yes 77 kinetic energy ireatr than a specified > tolerance 6 END | Figure 3.1: General cycle of the dynamic relaxation iteration44 Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures ‘of the method is monitored through the level of kinetic energy of the structure. The kinetic energy measure (U/,) is calculated by G-SS Me Gun where m is the number of nodes and 1 is the number of dimensions. Convergence is generally assumed when the kinetic energy is smaller than a threshold (U, < U.) and the residuals of all the degrees of freedom are less than a specified tolerance. This is achieved when an appropriate viscous damping factor is used or another type of «damping scheme is employed, 3.4.1 Initial conditions ‘To ensure the initial conditions (x, = O and Rf, ‘must be given by ‘a) the velocity at time At/2 au = 3.12) ‘This formula may be confirmed by defining an imaginary velocity at time —A/2 that is equa in magnitude but of opposite sign to of2!” such thatthe velocity att = 0 rust be zero since the velocity assumed vty linearly with time Figure 3.2: Initial conditions: velocity trace at f = 0 Figure 3.2 illustrates this concept. For time ¢ = At/2 Equation 3.6 can be rearranged as follows Ut (Mnf At + Gir /2) = of (ML (At = C 2) +R, G.13) Chapter 3: Dynamic Relaxation 45 Noting that the residual at time f = 0 is equal to the applied loading F; and substituting for v{, from Equation 3.12 gives an expression for the initial velocity at time 12472 (au _ At 1am = : 3.14) Ta Guy where Fj, is the initial external force at joint i in the x coordinate direction, 3.5 Stability of the method ‘The controlling parameters for the stability of the method are: + the nodal mass components which may be fictitious; ‘© the method of damping and the associated damping factor, and the time interval or step. Usually the time step is a fixed value and the other two factors are varied until stability of the iteration is achieved, 3.5.1 Fictitious masses tte ime ep. i 90 large othe masses oo smal hen nti ofthe te ation may oerand the analy wil tt converge oan egifrom stat. Generaly Sapo ng Scat of Sc 0 te Ot Scag Oe Bea tne ha oan show by Barnes [stat for sry At conerpenee way may Bo trsred by wing tous masse dened by the flowing equation AF s+ (atm) aus) Mie where 5, is the largest direct stiffness of the ith joint in the x direction, The proof ‘of Equation 3.15 can be derived from a simple yystem, where the nodes are in a line connected by truss elements (see Figure 3.3). The proof given here was developed Figure 3.3: System of nodal masses ina line using the original study by Barnes [9] as a basis. The greatest, primary stiffness falls, inthe direction of the line. Masses are assigned to the nodes and its assumed that they46 Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures move only along the Tine. This arrangement reflects the most critical condition. In this tundamped system, using Equation 3.6, the velocity at node i at time step f+ A\t/2 can be written as 2_ ava, At cain a For the next time interval the velocity can be calculated by Re 6.16) pesaua _ yeaua, At cranes Re yAt{ys — yA") G17) where S is the stiffness in the form of F24/¢,, and At(v; ~ vj)!~54"? is the elongation of the uss between joint i and j. The bracketed term is therefore equal to "5". By substituting Equation 3.16 into Equation 3.17, Rf is eliminated and the result is of20U2 gf awe fan 2 Gus) A similar equation can be written for node j. Subtraction of the two equations from, ceach other will enable the velocity of node i relative to node j to be expressed. HPS aphtare ea 7 G.19) Instabitiy occurs when the relative velocity at the current time step is equal to or greater than the relative velocity atthe previous time step in magnitude but it points to aan opposite direction. This can be expressed as 3.20) ituting this into Equation 3.19 gives a bound on the nodal mass for stability m= SF 5, G2 ‘This expesion only valid when the principal stifnessdietions coincide with the global coordinate system. Hence to esure stability of the teraton te following expression may be used ar Me Sie + (aterm) 3.22) 3.5.1.1 Fictitious masses for cable and truss elements For cable or truss members the elastic and geometric stiffness can be determined as follows —— - (+4) 02) where 7; is the tension in the cable member and f* is the current length of the mem- ber. For cables subject to elastic straining only the elastic stiffness will dominate but for cables where the tension is constant as in the case of form-finding the geometric stiffness will condition the iteration, Chapter 3: Dynamic Relaxation a7 381.2 Fi jious masses for membrane elements. ‘The stiffness of a node, connected by two cable members of lengths ¢ and fin the y coordinate direction may be calculated by the following equation if the member sfilfnesses are A, and EAs. 3.24) ‘The stiffness of a node with a continuous surface of triangular elements may be de- termined by analogy with the above. IF the nodal spacing in the y direction is é; and (a and the stiffness of the membrane is given by tb where: Fis the elastic modulus: {is the thickness of the membrane; and b is the average distance between nodes in the x direction at the ith node then the stiffness of the node in the y direction may be estimated using 3 (Eth =i(2 2 3 Si (4 3.25) where the factor allows forthe cross stfineses between the other nodes An alternative approach is when the stiffness of an element is explicitly calculated Mi Sis 6.26) Inthis case the matrix M/, isa full matrix. Computationally itis easier to use a diagonal lumped) mass matrix which provides an upper bound My = AE (Sel + pul + 1S. where j= .y,2 a2 where | | denotes the absolute value. This equation is similar to the form given by Gerschgorin’s theorem. Gerschgorin’s theorem in relation to dynamic relaxation has been discussed by Underwood [30] and Papadrakakis [27]. In the case of form-finding the displacements can be very large, therefore it is advantageous t0 use the largest possible stiffness to define the masses in each coordinate direction at a node i My = max(Me My Mis) where j= @.9.= 6.28) 3.5.2 Damping factors ‘The damping factor that causes the structure to approach the static position most rapidly should be used for the analysis. ‘This factor is called the critical damping factor. In Figure 3.4 the traces for a one degree of freedom problem with a number of different damping factors are illustrated.48, Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures ‘The sine wave represents the dynamic trace for an undamped analysis. The other traces represent two alternative paths that may be used to obtain the static solution of the problem: overdamped and critically damped. The overdamped trace indicates that an overdamped analysis is slow to reach convergence and since the trace does not pass through the static position the analysis does not give any bounds on the accuracy Of the analysis. The critically damped trace represents the most efficient path to the solution, In multi-degree of freedom problems the trace will not be ideal but it is still eee | es overdamped Figure 3.4: One-degree of freedom time-displacement trace similar to that shown in Figure 3.4. ‘The critical damping factor may be estimated by undertaking an undamped run to obtain an estimate of the highest frequency and by using the expression derived for the critical damping factor for a one degree of freedom problem, the ith degree of freedom, (given by Biggs [14] for example). The critical damping factor is 3.29) ‘The frequency is L f 7 (3.30) hence _ Cie = 205M aM MM, = An fM, B31) ‘where the highest frequency obtained from a multi-degree of freedom problem is used to estimate the critical damping factor. Next a damping constant for the complete . a(%) es ‘The damping constant k can be applied for all joints in the structure and it indicates that the ratio of damping force per unit mass is constant ~ such that joints of larger tnass will be more heavily damped, In dhis eave Equation 3.6 may be rewritten as grav aaa (LiKE) 4 a (AL) (2 of O oy et 3 " ’ ( ) , (i) iE) 839 k Chapter 3: Dynamic Relaxation 49 which is usually written as {8 = gf OD 4 Be RE, (634) where: 1—k/2 - k/2) 3 (2) eam a(t _ a 33 Ba at (a) eso) ‘This means that A is constant for the whole structure while 13, differs for each joint and each coordinate direction. It is clear for a successful dynamic relaxation procedure the time step, fictitious masses and viscous damping terms must be used. The viscous damping term is usually determined by the use of an undamped trial analysis where the frequency is used to estimate a suitable damping factor from Equation 3.31. This undamped trial analysis is sometimes referred to as the “trial run’. This estimation procedure and the trial run may be avoided by the use of kinetic damping. which is discussed in the next section. 3.5.3 Kinetic damping ‘There are many parameters to fix forthe efficient solution of any problem. The number of parameters may be reduced by the use of kinetic damping which does not require the determination of a viscous damping term, Hence only the time step and the fictitious nodal masses are required. In this way the time interval may be fixed and the masses estimated from Equation 3.22. In the case of instability the masses can be increased by a term or alternatively the time interval may be reduced. Kinetic damping is an alternative to viscous damping that was suggested by Cundall 15] for application to unstable rock mechanics problems. ‘The method of kinetic damping has been found to be very stable and rapidly convergent when dealing with large displacements. In this case no damping factor is used hence 37) 3.38) and the kinetic energy of the complete structure is traced as the undamped oscillations proceed and all current nodal velocities are reset to zero whenever an energy peak is detected. For a linear elastic system ascillating in one mode the first kinetic energy peak achieved would represent the static equilibrium position. For practical problems, however, the process must be continued through further peaks, until the required de~ ‘gree of convergence is achieved. Figure 3.5 shows the kinetic energy trace fora typical structure,50, Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures Chapter 3: Dynamic Relaxation Si 3.5.3.1 Starting coordinates after a kinetic energy reset kinetic energy Peak With kinetic energy damping the velocities of all the joints are set to zero when a fall in the level of the total kinetic energy of the structure occurs. This fallin the kinetic energy indicates that a peak has been passed. A typical kinetic energy peak is shown in Figure 3.6. If this peak was detected by fall in kinetic energy at time (t + (At/2)) then since the current coordinates are calculated at the same time as the velocities, as shown in Figure 3.6, the current coordinates stored in the vectors will be 2'"*2), It has been shown that if these coordinates are adopted as the starting position for the next cycle of calculations then full convergence may not necessarily be achieved. The ‘coordinates are set to 1'"-4"/2) when the peak is assumed to have occurred, fo] Figure 3.5: Typical kinetic energy trace for a multi-degree freedom structure Hence A294 ae offhae? 839) Thea a9 a (am a and stepping back to time (¢ — At/2) gives anny = gt At year afr = gt Abe G41) subsituing for 2 from Equation 340 into Equation 3.41 gives A (49 glean — Bl eran ee But from Equation 3.34 Ug oft RL Bay G43) TT eau. ot tAR2 teat ‘ Re xy Figure 3.6: The trace for a typical kinetic energy peak Hence (aya) _ pteran_ SAK APR : : 2 | OMe G44) ‘When the analysis is restarted the velocities must be calculated at the mid-point of the first time step as follows waye_ At a Nhe Ry 3.45) ‘where the residual forces fare recalculated from the +" displacement position. 3.6 Calculation of internal forces 3.6.1 Truss and cable structures Once the current coordinates have been determined using Equation 3.8 the new (ex- tended) length may be calculated at time (¢ + Af), In that case the current internal force in link element m, such as a truss or cable, may be determined as follows: ga = Fam (que — 0) 4.79 6.46){s the initial length of link is the current length of link at time (¢ + At) isthe elastic modulus multiplied by the eross sectional area of the link m, and TS, isthe initial prestress in lnk (i not specified by an initial, slack length). 0.0 the force is compressive so 1i,**") Ifthe link element is a cable and Tif"! ‘ust be set equal to zero. If the link connects joints i to & (see Figure 3.7), then the force inthe x direction at joint from link element m is given by rio a rgean GEM) im = Th RE 47) a Figure 3.7: The link connecting joint ito joint & Similarly the force at in the x direction is: Thao = Ti (3.48) Note that current geometry need only be used to calculate the components of forces if the structure is geometrically nonlinear. The contribution, in the 2 direction, of each bar connected to the ith joint are summed with the applied loading Fi, to give the residual force at time (t-} At) yom 6) members 1 at joint Re! Chapter 3: Dynamic Relaxation 53 @ Figure 3.8: (a) Geometry of a triangular element; (b) displacement of a side -oordinate directions. Similar equations may be written for the y an When dynamic relaxation is used to calculate the coordinate positions of cable structures subject to prestress then T),'“" is set equal to a prestress value Ty, and the coordinate positions of the joints calculated. As we shall sec later, this is sometimes referred to as form-finding since the geometry of the structure due to the prestress in each member and under the action of dead load is determined. The final current length of each member when the structure is in equilibrium as a result of the prestress may be calculated as f,°*° using the current coordinates of the joints at the end of the calculation. These tensioned lengths under the prestress may used to determine the slack or initial Iengths of the members. 3.6.2. Membrane structures For a membrane structure the natural stiffness element can be used for the calculation of the internal forces, ‘The original formulation of the natural stiffness element is credited to Argyris [1] but the formulation here follows the work of Barnes (5). This formulation reduces the stiffness matrix for a constant stress triangular element to (3 x 3) compared with the usual (9 x 9) associated with three displacements per node. For the formulation of the natural stiffness element a triangular element is considered as shown in Figure 3,8(a). This element has only in-plane stiffness so the element formulation is with respect to w and v displacements in the local coordinate directions. ‘The element may be in a three dimensional space in an arbitrary position. ‘The elongation of the side between nodes 1 and 2 of the triangular element according54 Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures to Figure 3.8(b) is Alia = (uz — te) 08 0i2 + (v2 — 04) sin Bia 8.50) ‘Similar equations can be written for the other two sides Aba cos Az —sinBi2 cosjg sing o 0 “ Abas o o — C0821 —sin®zs cos; sin Bz “ Bat SL cost windy OO esas a |) 2 which may be denoted by {M6} = [H] {u} G51) For the sake of brevity in further equations the ij index is always replaced with the Figure 3.9; Natural strain representation in natural strain triangular element index of the side; side 1 — 2 becomes side 3, side 2 ~ 3 becomes side I and side 3 — 1 becomes side 2. The notation follows the rule that the index of the side is equal to the index of the node which is opposite to the side, as shown in Figure 3.8(a). Natural strains are defined as extensional strains which are parallel with the sides of the triangle as shown in Figure 3.9. The strains are assumed constant along each side and throughout the panel and can be expressed as 1 Yh 0 0 Tf a6 { 7} 0 1/6 0 {e} LP! {A6)} = LH {u} 5 0 0 ye} laa 3.52) where é; is the lenght of side i. The element constant strains with respect to the x and _y direction are expressed in their usual form eae{ 5 } ee Chapter 3: Dynamic Relaxation 35 fe; is the strain along side ¢ then according to the formulation’ and considering only plane problem where n” = {cos , sin 8,}, ¢; can be expressed as follows 008? 8, &2 + sin? A, ey + 0050; sin 8, xy G54) ‘Therefore three equations may be written for the element and the strains €, £2, and ¢3 may be expressed in terms of =, ¢, and 7x, as follows aie + bity + 1729 3.55) fa = tate + bay + ey (3.56) f= Aste + baey + Cry es7 where a = cos? 8, b= sin? G58) in 0, cos 8, and 6, isthe inclination of side i to the local « axis shown in Figure 3.8(a), For the calculation of {&,y} the following equation can be used Abies a -{ 3 \. «af aus \ caf \ os) te Abs/ls 8 where 2 and y are convenient axes. This expression may be expanded to 1 [ se baea) (brer = brea) (brea ~ bees) ] f (ase — ax¢3) (ares ager) (0201 - axe2) | } 2 {Ee PET | aybs — asbz) (asbi—aibs) (aibe—aabi) | | en 6.60) a ho DET =| by ast) mh “TThe strain tensor is — 1 Foran arbitrary direction, piven by the {n} vector, the strain vector (€,} canbe calculated as follows {da} = (Al {a} where the length ofthe {m} vectors on, i (| — 1. The ey strain component canbe expressed in terms ofthe strain vector (dl, as follows = {n}? {ay} = {m)" [Al a)56 Computer Aided Design of Cable-Membrane Structures ‘The stresses in an element with respect to x and y direetions, with 2, equal t0 2e¢0, are the standard plane stress formulation for an isotropic material [35] a dy da 0) ( & {e}-[% 2 8] {5 }-wier am Ter 0 0 ds} | oy where d,; are orthotropic elastic constants: {oxy} E dy = dn = ma 3.63) dyz = day = vis G64) E ds = +H (3.65) However these constants do not consider the “buckling” or wrinkling of the membrane clement. Having obtained the [G) and [D] matrices the following relations may be written as {ory} = [D]kery} {oy} = [D\[G.j{eit {oy} = [DIGJL“ {4} (3.66) It is important to note that the natural stresses which are compatible with the natural strains, as shown in Figure 3.10 are pseudo-stresses, but equivalently they represent the stress distribution in the element. To obtain the natural stresses the theory of invariant internal work can be used. Since the intemal work on a unit volume is invariant, therefore the same result should be obtained using strains and stresses in the global coordinate system and when natural strains and stresses are used. If the transformation of the strains is defined as {Er} = |G] {er} 3.67) and the stress transformation is defined as {oy} = [Go] {or} (3.68) ‘Then as work is invariant {ai}" {861} = {ouy}" {8€.5} = {or}" [Gel (GJ {6} 3.69) Note therefore Go|"1G] = i] (3.70) Hence [G.|" = |G. GB.) Chapter 3: Dynamic Relaxation 57 Figure 3.10: Natural stress in a natural strain triangular element Since work is invariant this proves the following relation (IG-')* = (1G.1")" = (G4 3.72) Using the expression of {a} from Equation 3.68, it can be shown that {a1} = [Go] * {oy} = (Gl? {ey} 3.73) which allows us t express the natural stresses in the following form {oi} = [G.) (DIGJL) Alu) (3.74) ‘The only question left is the relationship between the natural stresses and the side forces: T;, T; and Ts. First, itis easy to prove the following relation considering Figure 3.8(a): Te — cos Aha 0 qT, —sin dy, 0 Tre cos Aig — cos O23 0 Tas 0 c088a — C08 As, " Ty 0 sin O23, sin 5 {Tay} = (AT {Ti} (3.76) Ik is assumed that matrix [X] describes the relation between the natural stresses and the side forces as follows {TD} =V (Xl fo} a7 where V denotes the volume of the element and no property is assumed about the ma- ix [X]. In this case the following equation can be written by substituting the expres- sion for T; from Equation 3.77 into Equation 3.76 and then subsituting the expression for 9; from Equation 3.74 giving {Tyy} = V (A)? (XIG.]"(DIIG.JIL}[H]{u} (3.78)