Structural Designer
Expedition Engineering
Client Name
Expedition
Location
London, UK
UCL
Gennaro Senatore
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
A demonstrator project championing a new design philosophy which will drastically reduce the material usage in structures, the Adaptive Truss is 80% lighter and six times more slender than a conventional equivalent I-beam structure, using 70% less whole-life energy.
The steel members making up the truss have been sized to prevent collapse, but instead of adding more steel to the super-slender and lightweight structure, the more onerous requirement of deflection is precisely controlled by embedded actuators..
Judge's comment: This research project examines how structural engineers can learn from nature. We tend to think of structures as stiff and static whereas most applied loads are transient and dynamic. The adaptive truss demonstrates, in a physical, almost visceral way, the advantages that sensors and actuators might bring to particularly slender structures.
Judge's comment:
This research project examines how structural engineers can learn from nature. We tend to think of structures as stiff and static whereas most applied loads are transient and dynamic. The adaptive truss demonstrates, in a physical, almost visceral way, the advantages that sensors and actuators might bring to particularly slender structures.