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N. Senses:
"Foam Structures: A Comparative Structural Efficiency Analysis Based on the Building Case "Watercube"";
Supervisor: M. Rudy; Continuing Education Center, 2007; final examination: 2007-07-05.

Foam structure in macro-scale has arisen as a new type of large span building structure recently which is a product of cooperation of advanced structural design, radical architectural design approach, and computer and software technology, and efficiency of foam structure became an important question to answer which could help further structural improvements. This study analyses efficiency of large span foam structure relative to conventional large span building structures with a parametric simulation method. Space frames are a special case of conventional large span structures one compared with foam structures, because it satisfies criteria such as being lightweight and three-dimensional as foam structure. Analysis is based on the comparison of base cases of foam model and space frame model, which are developed on light of real projects the Water Cube and the Symbol Zone of Expo´70, based on the parameters structural depth, weight and displacement, and vertical and horizontal load cases. During the analysis structural behavior of base cases were simulated by using a special structural behavior simulation program. It was found that foam model is more efficient than space frame model in terms of structural depth which is an important issue for large span building structures from both architectural and engineering point of view. Capability of spanning large distance with significantly less structural depth makes foam structure a preferable, new generation, steel structure for large spans. Moreover, the development process of base case foam model demonstrated the critical importance of geometrical design concerns of foam structure. Structural behavior simulations were exposed that structural optimization is one of the vitally important process of structural design of the foam structure.

Foam structure, space frame, geometrical optimization, structural optimization, structural behavior simulation

http://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/pub-ar_7969.pdf