ISOGEOMETRIC BEAM ELEMENT EXTENDED FOR GRIDSHELL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The design of gridshell structures is a complicated process, as the resulting shape of structure depends on initial undeformed grid geometry as well as on the history of boundary conditions used to form the final structure. In practice, the physical model is often used to determine the shape of the structure and the initial grid at the same time. Introducing Isogeometric analysis into a design of gridshells simplifies the design process as the problem can be easily recalculated when initial grid or boundary conditions change and the resulting shape can be immediately illustrated. The presented paper discusses possibilities in isogeometric gridshell modeling and proposes possible solutions of identified problems.

Keywords

• curved beam element, gridshell structure, isogeometric beam element, NURBS