Recently, I am working on form-finding by solving the Pucher’s equation. A meshless numerical method called Radial Basis Functions is employed. It can generate extremely smooth solutions with finite parameters. An conference abstract on this topic has been accepted by the annual Symposium of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures. While the authors, Andrew Borgart, Qingpeng Li and I, are still working on the full paper, here is one of the examples we will present in the paper. It is about how the thrust surface is affected by horizontal forces.
Membrane shells found with Pucher’s equation and Radial Basis Functions. From left to right are the top views of Airy stress function, principle stresses, shape function, and the 3D views of the shape with the arrowhead suggesting the directions of the loads.
See you in Barcelona at the IASS symposium in October 2019.
ChiangYC 