Mapping two-way continuous elastic grid on an imposed surface: Application to grid shells

Abstract

This paper presents a method to generate a grid shell on an imposed shape and imposed boundary conditions. The proposed method is done by mapping a two-way continuous elastic grid on an imposed surface using an explicit dynamic finite element method. An initially flat two-way grid, with free boundary conditions, is set up over a formwork like surface that has the desired shape. Then, the grid is dropped on the fixed surface. Moreover, different strategies of formfinding are presented and a comparison with other methods is done. Finally, many examples are shown to illustrate the proposed method.