Date of Award
8-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Planning, Design, and the Built Environment
Committee Chair/Advisor
Vincent Y. Blouin
Committee Member
Michael Carlos Barrios Kleiss
Committee Member
Winifred Elysse Newman
Committee Member
Brandon Ross
Abstract
Prefabrication approaches are widely used to improve vulnerable communities building quality. It would be valuable if the prefabrication relied on locally available resources instead of depending on heavy industry. Although prefabrication approaches have many advantages, such as efficiency and consistency, they may lack flexibility, which may not be adaptable to the community's needs and preferences. The modular approach generally enhances flexibility by arranging modules into various end products. Incorporating a modular approach with deployable structures, which can transform from compact to predetermined configurations, is expected to boost flexibility. In addition, regarding constructability, developing this idea using bamboo, which is massively available in tropical areas and has been used as a construction material for generations, is forthcoming because of its lightweight and mechanical properties.
Most research on deployable bamboo structures is limited to trial-and-error design experiments instead of discoursing on performances. Thus, there is inadequate design knowledge. This research aims to develop design guidelines by assessing their structural performance, flexibility, and constructability and finding the relationship between design parameters and performances. The deployable bamboo structure considered in this study has an arch shape and is made of scissor-like elements (SLE), where each SLE is composed of two bars connected by a pin. Using Rhino/Grasshopper, parametric computational simulations have been developed to generate the geometry and compute the performances simultaneously. Design guidelines are generated automatically using a MATLAB program based on correlation and sensitivity analysis, and multi-objective optimization. Then, user-participatory experiments were done to test the developed guidelines' feasibility and useability.
As the primary contribution, the guidelines provide essential design knowledge of deployable bamboo scissor-like arch (DBSA) structures to be used by any lay person interested in designing such a structure. Moreover, the guidelines present two design approaches, referred to as parameter-based approach and performance-based approach, with their step-by-step design processes to define a set of design parameters and their performances to inform designers before they make a design decision. Other contributions include a Grasshopper script for automated geometry generation and performance assessment, a MATLAB program for automated design guidelines generation, and a MATLAB program to aid in selecting a set of parameters based on several design constraints.
Recommended Citation
Maurina, Anastasia, "Developing Design Guidelines of Deployable Bamboo Scissors-Like Arch Structures: For Structural Performance, Flexibility, and Constructability" (2023). All Dissertations. 3435.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/3435