New algorithms to study complex surfaces
Wooden beams and planks are bent, pleated and braided to create a new generation of light structures, which are aesthetically appealing, economically viable, and environmentally sustainable by design.
The extreme deformation of the timber elements and the complexity of the resulting surfaces make them sometimes difficult to analyze using standard approaches, since these occasionally fail to reliably capture certain mechanical properties. In an interdisciplinary collaboration, the Chair of Timber Construction has reached out to a group of theoretical mathematicians at the Chair of Geometric Analysis to derive the theory needed for the development of a structure preserving algorithm to aid in the design and analysis of these thin wooden structures. The tool, which is under development, is based on discrete variational mechanics and uses asynchronous variational integrators (AVI) to study the stability and load-bearing capacity of a given structure, and will allow to assess the feasibility of ever more daring designs.