Designing Deployable Folded Plate Structures

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Burkhard Corves; Professor Dr.-Ing. Georg Jacobs; Professor Dr.-Ing. Martin Trautz
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology
• Term: from 2016 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 289387994

Foldable structures made of stiff, plane elements combine the advantages of high area moments of inertia and deployability. These characteristics make them a predestined design principle for various technical fields. As part of the research project, a specific design and development process has already been developed and validated by small-scale concept studies. Furthermore, an application-oriented classification was developed, which is suitable for a structured and methodical selection of folding solutions. Additionally, existing methods were evaluated and tested; missing methods were identified and tools/methods were generated.So far no large-scale prototype in industrial quality and detailed design has been developed with the described methods/tools. However, this is necessary and logically the next step to achieve the following goals: 1. validation and improvement of the results developed so far2. further development and validation of the later project phasesThe feedback of the scientific community was positive and the output of the project has been recognized as an important step on the way to the technically and economically sustainable use of deployable folding structures. Together with the goals mentioned above, a general framework which enables industrial use can be created. Nevertheless, it is important that these methods and tools are going to be applied, so that further goals of the project are:3. To make the principle of folding accessible to science and industry as well as to the general public. Realized deployable folding structures are rare in both, the construction and mechanical engineering sectors, and therefore not anchored in the consciousness of potential clients, planners and users. Here a prototype is an adequate medium. 4) Demonstration of the advantages of this alternative solution principle by means of a prototype.The main goal of this research project is to enable a purposeful application of deployable foldings in architecture and engineering. By reaching these aims an interdisciplinary understanding of deployable folding is established. Further a suitable course of action and an overview of necessary methods are proposed to architects and engineers who intend to apply the principle of folding to deployable structures. Thereby foundations for the purposeful technical application of self-supporting foldings are laid, e.g. as wide-spanning, deployable load-bearing structures.Since the planning and realization of a large-scale prototype in industrial quality requires expertise in architecture (with focus on structural engineering), kinematics, mechanism synthesis, process and methods development the continuation of this interdisciplinary cooperation between the three applicants represent an ideal project team.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants