Effects of different geometric patterns on free form gridshell structures

Abstract

Gridshells are commonly known as structures with the shape and rigidity of a double curvature shell consisting of a grid, not a continuous surface. In recent decades, these structures have attracted significant attention. The impact of various geometric patterns on free form gridshell structures is investigated here to demonstrate the necessity of collaboration between structural and architectural characteristics in enhancing structure efficiency. To that goal, a framework is proposed where three shells are first designed, and then six geometric patterns are formed on them. The main factors for evaluation of gridshells are decreasing the steel weight as an economic index and decreasing the displacement as a structural index, also, finite element method is used for structurally analyzing the gridshells, and the generated gridshells are compared to each other based on the mentioned indices. For the optimization process, an approach is suggested to find the most optimum gridshell, then numerical results show the efficiency of the proposed alternative approach.