To reduce the environmental impact of the concrete construction industry, ACORN is investigating the following concepts:

STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS

We see potential in two structural systems.

Non-prismatic beams that follow the moment distribution to optimise the concrete utilisation in the beam, instead of following the rationalisation imposed by a prismatic timber formwork. As opposed to flat slabs working in bending, requiring thickness and reinforcement, compression-dominant shells work mainly in compression and therefore are thinner and require less reinforcement, if at all.

APPROACH

To design these geometrically complex structures, we rely on computational design.

Parametric modelling enables architects and engineers to create designs that consider constraints from fabrication, transport and assembly, towards construction-aware design.

To promote a wide-spread dissemination of these practices, we are developing a digital design framework that can be integrated with existing CAD tools.

TECHNOLOGY

The digital design workflow relies on a number of computational design processes.

Formfinding makes use of Physics-based algorithms and Isogeometric Analysis for determining the shapes of flexible-formed beams and funicular thin shells.

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is used for assessing structural performance, but also for determining the geometry of force flows used for designing shell segmentation patterns and reinforcement layouts.

Simulation of digital fabrication processes enables identifying conflicting issues related to constraints imposed by production of concrete building elements.

Optimisation methods enable finding more efficient designs for concrete building elements by minimizing embodied carbon contributions from concrete and reinforcement. Various optimisation strategies are experimented with, from Design Space Exploration and Visualisation to Evolutionary Solvers and Direct Search approaches.