FORM FINDING OF FREE-FORM SHELLS WITH SPECIFIED HORIZONTAL PROJECTED STRESS DISTRIBUTION

Abstract

A form-finding method is proposed for free-form shells specifying the distribution of stresses projected to the horizontal plane. The surface shape is obtained as a solution to a linear system of the vertical equilibrium equations discretized by the finite difference method with respect to the heights at the grid points. Distribution of the shear stress is specified to generate various shapes with a region of negative Gaussian curvature and free boundary. Effect of elastic deformation is verified by finite element analysis, and the shape is iteratively corrected to achieve the specified projected stress distribution considering the material property.