Project Details
Projekt
Light weight biaxial slabs as bionic structures
Subject Area
Structural Engineering, Building Informatics and Construction Operation
Term
from 2011 to 2018
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 198421558
The adaption of natural archetypes ideally leads to lightweight bearing systems. Particularly reinforced concrete slabs provide a high-design potential and also have an optimized material consumption.The goal of this research project is the development of lightweight, material-saving and stable concrete slabs as a bionic structure. By the adaption of three natural models the flow of force will be optimized. This leads to an improvement of the bending and shear bearing behavior with optimized material consumption. Another effect is the reduction of costs and resources as well as a contribution to sustainable construction methods. Not only the flow of forces will be optimized, also the conventional forms of the bottom side of concrete slabs can be replaced by nature inspired innovative designs. In the first research period of the project fundamentals were carried out for the development of bionic structures. Three different natural structures were adapted for structural concrete and worked out with self-developed optimization methods, FE-simulations and experiments. The inner structure of slabs will be optimized by improved void formers (1), the bearing capacity is improved by geometries like ribs, haunches and curvatures (2) and the bearing behavior will be optimized by a reinforcement configuration inspired by the principals of a spiderweb (3).Based on the results of the first research period, the basic structures are combined, so that a further improvement of the bearing capacity of a slab is realized in this proposed research project. For that purpose, the developed basic structures will be optimized for suitable combinations.The bearing behavior of bionic components is improved by the use of modern high performance concretes ((micro reinforced) ultra high performance concrete, high performance concrete, lightweight concrete, fiber reinforced concrete and textile reinforced concrete) and concrete hybrid systems. The different concretes will be selected on the base of the biological growth rule. It will be chosen a concrete type, which is the best to finish the material requirements of the component area.At the moment no models for the description of the bearing behavior exist. Therefore, engineering models based on the results of the research will be developed to describe the structural behavior and serve as a basis for future design models. Thus, the significant modeling and computational effort for the development of innovative concrete structures can be essentially reduced.Not all structure are suitable for the variety of boundary conditions, so that a design tool on the basis of fuzzy logic will be developed that proposes a suitable bionic slab system according to the conditions.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
