With the endeavor of years, I have eventually finalized my PhD dissertation, which is titled Design and Fabrication of Shell Structures: Aided by Radial Basis Functions and Reconfigurable Mechanisms. Yes, titles of PhD research tend to be lengthy, and mine is no exception. The defense ceremony will be live-streamed on the 1st of February 2022 between 14:30 to 16:30 Dutch time (UTC+1) or 21:30 to 23:30 Taiwan time (UTC+8). The video streaming can be access via https://collegerama.tudelft.nl/mediasite/play/cedffc87b9f440aeb4ad47af73b17ecd1d.
My dissertation introduces a new form-finding method to solve the membrane shells’ equilibrium. The shapes and stress distributions are numerically represented by radial basis functions. The method can start the form-finding process from either a shape or a stress distribution. Then the method imposes free-edge conditions and tweaks the initial input to eliminate the need for vertical supports (fig. 1). The algorithm also has the feature of taking horizontal loads into account. Vertical supports at the edges can help the shells resist horizontal loads (fig. 2). In the absence of vertical supports, the shells need to be thickened to accommodate the eccentricity (fig. 3).
The double-curved surfaces of shells are also quite challenging to produce. I have also invented a type of mechanism that can transform between flat and double-curved states. The mechanisms consist of a set of blocks connected by tiling hinges, which are the key elements introducing the curvature (fig. 4). Multiple prototypes have been produced with different equipment in various materials (videos 1-3)
Chiang, Y.-C. (2022). Design and Fabrication of Shell Structures: Aided by Radial Basis Functions and Reconfigurable Mechanisms [Doctoral dissertation, Delft University of Technology].
ChiangYC 