Modeling of Fabric Structures and Associated Design Issues

Abstract

Fabric structures demonstrate an enormous application potential of tensioned fabric as a medium for creating dramatic looking, free-form architectural enclosures. However, their design presents a number of challenges. First, their shape cannot be known accurately at the outset; it must be found through a process of form-finding. Second, under imposed loading (wind or snow), they exhibit a visible form-force interaction, which must be taken into account at the load analysis stage. Finally, the manufacture of a three-dimensional fabric surface must involve a patterning stage, which maps the surface onto a series of two-dimensional panels cut in unstrained fabric. As discussed in this paper, all of the design stages require specialist computational modeling based on good understanding of the relationship between form and stress. Much of the discussion in the paper centers on misconceptions associated with form-finding, as well as the inadequacies of some computational approaches to form-finding and patterning. The question of what constitutes an optimal form points to the use of natural principles in the conceptual design of fabric structures.