Structural Design and Testing of Digitally Manufactured Concrete Structures

The form freedom enabled by digital fabrication with concrete technologies provides advantages for a wide range of concrete based objects, from architectural to structural elements. The current chapter focuses on the specifics of structural design and engineering of DFC with emphasis on those technologies based on Additive Manufacturing with...

A floating connector element formulation for multi-level modelling of composite structures

Design and optimisation of large structures, including the positioning of lower-level components, typically require extensive user involvement and sequential mechanical analysis/optimisation iterations. This paper presents an original method that enables adaptive positioning of lower-level models (such as components) within higher level...

The effects of a full-aircraft aerodynamic model on the design of a tailored composite wing

This paper discusses the effects of the aerodynamic model on the design of a composite wing via aeroelastic tailoring. The classic framework for analysis and optimization of composite wings developed at Delft University of Technology adopts panel method aerodynamics to calculate static and dynamic loads. The current work expands the...

Fast Aeroelastic Analysis and Optimisation of Large Mixed Materials Wind Turbine Blades

In this dissertation, structural wind turbine blade layouts are presented that are suitable for 10MW and 20MW wind turbine blades. This has been accomplished by using a medium fidelity static aeroelastic model embedded in an optimisation framework. The structural solutions are the result of a stiffness optimisation where the blade mass is...

Shaping Forces: Review of two Bridge Design Methodologies towards Architectural and Structural Symbiosis

This paper investigates the symbiotic relationship between the architectural appearance of a bridge and the structural design. The research is done by reviewing and comparing the design methodology employed by the first author in the conceptualization of two of his bridges; an early work from 1997 and a recent work from 2017. The review of the...

Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Bridge Design in the Netherlands: Architectural Challenges toward Innovative, Sustainable, and Durable Bridges

This paper reviews the use of fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) in architectural and structural bridge design in the Netherlands. The challenges and opportunities of this relatively new material, both for the architect and the engineer, are discussed. An inventory of recent structural solutions in FRP is included, followed by a discussion on...