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Case study: A modular, self-tensioned, bending-active canopy

Article · September 2013

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 Proceedings of the International Association for
Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) Symposium 2013
„BEYOND THE LIMITS OF MAN”
23-27 September, Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland
J.B. Obrębski and R. Tarczewski (eds.)
 

Case study: A modular, self-tensioned, bending-active canopy

Lars De Laet1, Evy Slabbinck2, Tom Van Mele3, Philippe Block4, Marijke Mollaert5
1
Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Architectural Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, lars.de.laet@vub.ac.be
2
Student, Department of Architectural Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, evy.slabbinck@vub.ac.be
3
Postdoctoral researcher, BLOCK Research Group, Institute of Technology in Architecture, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, van.mele@arch.ethz.ch
4
Assistant Professor, BLOCK Research Group, Institute of Technology in Architecture, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, block@arch.ethz.ch
5
Professor, Department of Architectural Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, marijke.mollaert@vub.ac.be

Summary: This paper illustrates the design and form-finding of a self-tensioned canopy and describes its materialisation into a prototype.

Keywords: bending-active, membrane structure, form-finding, prototype

1. INTRODUCTION
Doubly curved membrane structures are typically tensioned between
high and low anchor points attached to the ground, buildings or poles.
By integrating flexible bending elements in the membrane surface, an
internal support and shape-defining system is created that provides more
freedom in design, and allows reduction of the amount of external
supports.
Combining elastically bent elements with a tension structure creates a
hybrid bending-active construction. The interacting components can be
connected in such a way that the system is self-tensioned and that the
action required to bend the spline elements into a curved shape is
Fig. 2. View on the design proposal for a canopy.
resolved internally.
Several full-scale bending-active prototypes illustrating this synergetic 2.2 Form-finding tool
interaction between membrane and bending element have been built
The form-finding of this bending-active case study is computed in an
recently, such as the ‘Bending-active membrane structure’ [1] and ‘La
existing design tool that has been developed in-house to fully explore
Tour de l’Architecte’ [2]. Also the structural combination of the bending
the potential and possibilities of shaping tension structures by
and membrane elements on the level of separate building components,
integrating bending-active elements [4, 5]. The tool is written in Python
such as membrane restrained arches and columns are subject of on-going
[6] and implemented in Rhinoceros [7], providing an easy-to-use design
research [3].
tool for fast, robust and flexible modelling and form-finding. Results can
This paper demonstrates the concept of self-supported, bending-active be easily visualised and inspected in the Rhinoceros 3D model space.
tension structures by means of a case study, designed and fabricated by
Using a mixed formulation, the force density of each element in the tool
students at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium. The form-finding
is controlled interactively by the user by assigning a force, length, force
of the structure is discussed, as well as the materialisation into a
density, or stiffness to the element, or any combination of these
prototype.
properties [8]. Both the boundary conditions and the form-finding
parameters can be changed in between calculation runs to interactively
2. DESIGN
steer the design in the desired direction. The design tool giving
immediate graphical feedback on the influence of the input parameters
2.1 Design proposal
has proven to be a great asset in the design of this case study.
The case study is a canopy formed by several, modular, tensioned
Figure 3 illustrates the input geometry and the shape of equilibrium of
membrane structures, as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. Each membrane
the canopy. The dark grey lines represent cable elements and the blue
structure has a triangular shape, and consists of elastically bent
lines are the bending edges.
composite edges. The canopy marks the entrance of a building, provides
a shed for bikes and shelters a smoker’s area. The impact of the structure
on the existing building has to be kept to a minimum, hence the reason
for designing a self-supported, lightweight structure.

Fig. 3. The shape of equilibrium is computed using a self-developed

Fig. 1. Interial view of a canopy formed by several, self-tensioned form-finding tool. Left: the input geometry, right: the shape of
membrane structures. equilibrium.
2.3 Design steps
The intention of the initial design was to bend the two lateral edge
elements with the membrane pretension. Modelling the membrane with
a pretension of 1 kN/m in both vertical and horizontal direction,
however, generates a flat structure (Fig. 4a). In other words, the vertical
pretension is insufficient to bend the edge elements with a radius of 2
cm, thickness of 0,2 cm, and an E-modulus of 23 GPa. To bend the
edges as desired, the membrane tension in the vertical direction needs to
be increased to a value of 75 kN/m (Fig. 4b), which is much too high for
practical applications. In addition, the shape of the membrane does not
contain enough double curvature and reduces the headroom underneath
the canopy. Increasing the tension in the horizontal direction (connecting
the two bent edges) to obtain more double curvature does not provide a
solution since this also decreases the vertical action of the membrane to
bend the edges. As a result, they become straight again.
Finally, to overcome all these issues, it was decided to simply bend the
edges by additional tensioning cables. Because one single cable
obstructs the arched passage formed by the canopy (Fig. 4c), three
cables are applied (Fig. 4d). This way, the structure is also stiffer, and
slender cables can be used. As a result, the membrane now acts as a
secondary structure, which is beneficial in terms of structural
redundancy (safety) and maintenance (replacing the membrane).
Fig. 4. Perspective and side view of the different design steps and
investigated configurations.
Fig. 5. Perspective, front, side and magnified view of the three cases
with different membrane pretension. The blue lines are the superposed
bending elements of the three cases.
To get an understanding of the influence of the membrane’s pretension
on the bending behaviour of the composite edges, three cases are
investigated. They all have a pretension of 1 kN/m in the vertical
direction, but differ in the horizontal direction: 1, 5 and 10 kN/m. Figure
5 illustrates the bent elements of the three cases superposed. As can be
expected, the edges bend inwards under higher pretension. This also
means that an inwards bending can be expected under external loading
on the membrane.
Figure 6 shows a render of the form-found design proposal with the
additional tensioning cables, necessary to bend the edges. Note that an
additional cable has been added at the bottom of the membrane to
control too much sagging of the lower membrane edge and to introduce
more efficient the membrane pretension in the vertical direction.
Fig. 6. A rendering of the design proposal with three cables and
membrane tension of 1 kN/m in both directions.
3. PROTOTYPE
3.1 Specification
A small prototype was first created on a scale of 1/10 to obtain a first
tangible idea of the spatial configuration of the design (Fig. 7). The
connection points are 3D printed to verify the feasibility of the design
proposals for the detailing (Fig. 8).
Fig. 7. Small scale prototype with 3D printed details.
Fig.8. Close-up of the 3D printed connection details.
Then, a larger-scale prototype was fabricated to observe how the
materialised construction behaves, to detect additional problems, and to
compare its behaviour to the form-found, theoretical model. The scale of
the prototype, 1/3, is appropriate to visualise any possible problems
while being manageable in size.
The elastically bent composite edge elements of the structure are made
from glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP). The material is weather-

 

proof, lightweight, deforms elastically, and long custom lengths can be The connection points are considered and executed as rigid sockets, in
manufactured by pultrusion. The stiffness of the frame is obtained by the which the edges fit. The geometry of the details is obtained from a 3D
energy that is stored by bending of the splines. These are for this shape of the construction in Rhinoceros (Fig. 11). The elements
prototype circular tubes with a diameter of 20 millimetres and a wall connecting the cables and the splines are also made from steel and are
thickness of 2 millimetres. The Young modulus of the GFRP elements is attached to the splines using a silicone glue (Fig. 12). Note that in this
23 GPa. prototype a bending moment occurs due to the eccentricity between the
action of the cables and the centre line of the spline. This has to be
For the canopy, a lightweight PU-coated, polyester fabric is used, with a
avoided when up-scaling the prototype to a real-scale construction.
high strain percentage, and is therefore easy to handle during
construction. The membrane is not connected to the edge at ground level
but starts at a safe height to prevent vandalism. In addition, stress
concentrations and wrinkles that could occur in the bottom corner are
avoided this way.
The cutting pattern has been automatically generated in Easy, based on
the form-found shape and the geometry of the prototype [9]. Then, the
cutting pattern has been drawn by hand and is made out of two pieces,
with the geodesic line in the (vertical) symmetry plane of the prototype.
The membrane is stitched and welded.
Pretension in the vertical direction in the membrane is introduced by
adding boundary cables in the upper and lower edge of the membrane. Fig. 11. Rigid socket that connects two edges and the 3D model
They are respectively pulled to the upper edge and to the bottom steel simulation in Rhino.
detail to pretension the membrane (Fig. 9). The composite edge splines
are placed in pockets, large enough to allow the cable connectors of the
edges to be slid through.

Fig.12. Connection point of the cable to the spline.

4.2 Realisation
The final prototype is comprised of 3 meter long, GFRP tubes for the
splines, a 1,73 meter long GFRP tube for the compression strut in
between the splines and 1,2 square meters of membrane (figure 12). The
first step in assembling the prototype is to slide the edges into the
pockets and connect them with the stiff steel corner elements. Then, the
frame is bent using temporary tension straps that are connected to the
bottom and top of the canopy (Fig. 13). This way, the steel cables can
easily be connected to the bending elements.
Fig. 9. Boundary cables to pretension the membrane.
The triangular frame is constituted of two bent edges and a third straight
upper element. All three elements are connected stiff. The corners where
the bending-active elements meet are prefabricated in steel with a
starting angle obtained from a 3D simulation. Figure 10 illustrates the
technical drawings.

Fig.13. Left: building components, right: a temporary tensioning strap is

Fig. 10. Technical drawings of the stiff steel connections. used to easily connect the cables to the bending elements
 Finally, the temporary tension straps are unloaded and the cables 5. DISCUSSION
become tensioned. There are no wrinkles in the membrane and the
From the prototype can be seen that the edges bend more inwards than
double curvature is clearly visible at this point (Fig. 14). The upper part
initially designed or envisioned. Different parameters and constraints
of the membrane contains less double curvature, but ponding is
may affect and create this bending. Observation of the prototype shows
prevented by the inclination of the structure.
that the action of the membrane is the main reason of this bending. As
discussed in Section 2, the circular bending edges will bend inwards
under higher membrane tension, which occurred in the built prototype.
This can be avoided in a full-scale prototype by using rectangular
sections instead of circular ones. This way the inwards bending is
counteracted, as the section has a larger area moment of inertia around
one axis. However, it must be noted that the direction of the action of the
membrane changes along the bending element and torsion can be
expected. This also has the result that the larger area moment of inertia
of the rectangular section will not be used in the most optimal way at
every point of the bending element.

5. CONCLUSIONS
This prototype is the result of an exciting process, whereby students –
guided by researchers – were confronted with new problems and issues
and learned from every aspect in the process “from design to prototype”.
Using the in-house-developed form-finding tool, various design
proposals and configurations were investigated. This study showed the
need to bend the structure with additional external cables. A small-scale,
3D-printed prototype was useful in understanding the overall geometry
of the structure and the concepts of the structural details.
Finally, a prototype with 1/3 scale was built. As well as the fabrication
process, the final results are instructive and show the issues that need to
be solved before proceeding on to a full-scale prototype. Especially the
inwards bending of the bending-active elements under the action of the
membrane (and additional external loading) needs closer attention in
further developments.
This student project shows the need to work with an integrated finite
element model, including the correct modelling of the membrane, the
cables, the bending-active frame and the stiff connections to be able to
predict the behaviour of this lightweight shell correctly and to verify its
effectiveness.

6. ACKNOWNLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Jimmy Colliers, Nicolas Sels, and Jan
Roekens for their support. Also the companies Velum and Sioen are
acknowledged for their intermediate feedback.

7. REFERENCES
[1] Lienhard, J. and Knippers, J., Permanent and Convertible Membrane
Structures with Intricate Bending-active Support Systems, in Proceedings of
the IASS symposium 2012, Seoul, Korea.
[2] Lienhard, J., Ahlquist S., Menges A. and Knippers J., Extending the
Functional and Formal vocabulary of tensile membrane structures through
the interaction with bending-active elements, in Proceedings of the TensiNet
2013 Symposium [RE]THINKING Lightweight Structures, pp. 109-118,
2013, Istanbul, Turkey.
[3] Alpermann, H. and Gengnagel, C., Shaping Actively-bent Elements by
Restraining Systems, in Conference Proceedings IASS- APCS Symposium:
From Spatial Structures to Space Structures, 2012, Seoul, Korea.
[4] De Laet L., Veenendaal D., Van Mele T., Mollaert M. and Block, P.,
Bending incorporated: designing tension structures by integrating bending-
active elements, in Proceedings of the TensiNet 2013 Symposium
[RE]THINKING Lightweight Structures, pp. 251-256, 2013, Istanbul,
Turkey.
[5] Van Mele T., De Laet L., Veendendaal D., Mollaert M., Block P. Shaping
tension structures by actively bent linear elements, in International Journal
of Space Structures, in review (2013).
[6] Python Programming Language – www.python.org
[7] Rhinoceros – www.rhino3D.com
[8] Veenendaal D., Block P., An overview and comparison of structural form
Fig.14. Various views of the finished prototype finding methods for general networks, in International Journal of Solids and
Structures, Vol. 49, no. 26, pp. 3741-3753 (2012).
[9] Easy – technet Gmbh - http://www.technet-gmbh.de/

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