From: Charles J Knight (c.knight_at_juno.com)
Date: 03/22/00
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 19:06:47 -0800 Subject: Re: Double-wall skin (was: ball connection) Message-ID: <20000322.192436.-261687.0.c.knight@juno.com> From: Charles J Knight <c.knight_at_juno.com>
> > Do you mean something like the twin-layer geodesics on
> > http://w3.one.net/~monkey
>
> David's making his skin out of a truss arrangement. It's a lot more
> complicated than what I had in mind (but they are beautiful things,
> aren't they?).
Boy are they. I don't think I'd have the patience to assemble models
of that complexity, unless I intended to actually build one.
(Programming
VRML models, however, I might consider doing)
> I was proposing something more along the lines of the way the struts
> work
> in a tensegrity sphere -- actually crossing under a vertex to
> connect two
> non-adjacent vertices. Sort of a skin-and-a-half, rather than a
> double
> skin.
Wouldn't that, essentially, be just reinforcing the form with its dual?
Icosahedron and dodecahedron, for example...one would reinforce
the other.
> trusses. These could be tension members, though, not compression
> members
> as in a tensegrity, so you could get away with steel cables instead
True...and it would result in a fairly lightweight system.
I remember something similar in a graphic on the web. Don't know
where I saw it. Basically, let's use a 3F icosa for an example, the
pent and hex panels were assembled similarly to bicycle wheels.
A single rigid "axle" connected to the rigid pent and hex rings, with
high strength cable...which produced panels that could be connected
together into a continuous dome.
It made sense to me...I had just forgotten about it until now.
Something similar could easily be done with tensile membranes. Radial
tent structures could connect between the "axle" and the tension ring,
resulting in a double walled panel. Leave it empty, and you have a dead
air space. Fill it with aerogel or some other insulation, and you have a
useful insulative panel.
It'd be pretty easy to manufacture, too... Connect the "axles" together
with
tension cables, and it'd also be pretty easy to reinforce.
-- Chuck Knight
________________________________________________________________
YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET!
Juno now offers FREE Internet Access!
Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.