Archinect - Structuralism 2.0

The Structural Design of an LDS Church

2012-05-06T14:57:00-04:00

This project focused on the structural design of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This structure is located in the heart of Cambridge and less than half of a mile from the Charles River. This building will be used as a house of worship for the Mormon Church as well as a recreation center and a place for Bible study. This structure features two levels of parking: one parking level is on grade and the second is underground parking. The first floor of the church is located above the ground level parking and features the main chapel area and a gymnasium as well as study rooms. The second level of the church consists of study rooms as well as rooms for staff to work. This floor is open to the gymnasium and the chapel below. The roof level of this structure is lined with multiple parapets and supports a mechanical penthouse at two opposite ends of the structure. The structure is topped by a steeple which measures almost 45 feet in height.

Th...

FEM Analysis Project - Frank Gehry Cladding System

2012-04-28T10:18:00-04:00

Coursework at Lehigh is intense. Fortunately, I've found a little time to upload my project on a Frank Gehry curtain wall system. I referenced materials from MIT, Stanford and Harvard university to finish this assignment. What I found was fairly illuminating.

Finite elements really do help in the analyzing freeform structural systems. In general, there are two things every structural engineer wants to look at: strength and serviceability. But because this cladding structure is exposed primarily to the exterior, only strength is of importance here.

Five things were analyzed for each beam/tube element: deformation, normal force, shear force, moment, and torsion. In addition to this, stress concentrations were mapped over the aluminum panels, which were modeled with thin shell elements.

More is described about the analytical process below in the presentation jpegs. This project would not have been finalized without the help of Dr. John L. Wilson, who deserves my enti...

The FEM Analysis of a Gehry Cladding System

2012-03-05T15:15:00-05:00

For the next couple of days, I will be writing about Finite Element Methods (FEM). Widely considered one of the more difficult courses at Lehigh, FEM is used by structural engineers to measure or trace stress concentrations throughout a structure subjected to loads or experiencing deformation.

The reason I am writing about this is because I am currently enrolled in a FEM course and my professor, knowing my background, has asked me to "try to bridge" an architectural concept to a term-long project in FEM. So, given my background as an architecture student - naturally - I've gone rogue and selected something wildly complex: a Gehry cladding system. Here is the scope of my project insofar:

Scope of Project:

This project will focus on a custom Frank Gehry designed cladding system. In scope, the project will present (1) the computational descriptions of Gehry's architectural forms, (2) how these forms are typically fabricated, and (3) an FEM analysis of built components...

Big Beam Competition Entry

2012-02-29T14:10:00-05:00

This is the design of a prestressed concrete beam for the annual Big Beam Competition annually held in the Northeast. The competition grades entrants based on performance against a given set of loads and overall quality of design.

To design the beam, beam geometry was optimized using both personal judgment and Microsoft Excel. The drawings for the beam and the calculations are included in this video. The video charts the series of decisions we made for the competition, how the beam was fabricated, analyzed and tested and the overall cost for the beam.

It was announced on January 12, 2012 that we placed first for best overall performance. In March, we will be award a cash prize of $900.

Loft Structure Model Video

2012-01-28T19:13:00-05:00

Tuned Mass Damper Design

2012-01-24T11:53:00-05:00

Just recently, I began a project with Dr. Shamim Pakzad of Lehigh University on the design of a tuned mass damping system that would simulate the seismic behavior or a loft structure. The project originated from a project that a friend of mine collaborated on with Michael Maltzan Architects: a studio built for Vincent Gallo, the Italian-American film director and actor. The goal of the experiment is to subject a damper similar to what's shown in Figure 1 to a harmonic excitation. Using an accelerometer, both natural frequency and period (inverse relationships) can be ascertained.

The damper will consist of two parts: (1) a single degree of freedom system (the base damper, similar that shown in Fig 1) and (2) a multiple degree of freedom system (the smaller damping system consisting of small aluminum masses, similar to that shown in Fig 2). A hole will be cut in the base damper to allow the smaller MDOF system (the masses) to be inserted in (Fig 3). This will simulate the ac...

Performance Based Design

2011-10-04T09:48:12-04:00

Currently, I've been in three courses which have assisted my year-long independent research project: a new method for designing reinforced concrete shear walls. The project is to be designed for the Pankow Foundation, an organization out of Claremont, CA, founded on the vision to improve construction methods through research.

Typical concrete shear wall design is not an easy task. In the past, most walls have been designed so as to be a combination of column and wall, utilizing what most architects like to refer as pilasters, which extrude at the ends from the interior of the flat wall. A good example of what that would typically look like is shown below.

For our design, we're introducing past standards to current performance-based criteria. By looking at what has worked in the past vs. what is required by seismic design, it is our belief that just building a shear wall straight upon a fixed condition isn't suitable anymore. (By fixed, I mean any structural assembly which...

Plasticity in Materials

2011-09-28T14:34:57-04:00

I would like to think as an architect that the materials on a building are permanent. That, as I design a building, what I design will last forever.

It's not true, of course. All materials, whether steel or concrete or composite, are destined to fail at some point in time. Whether that failure point occurs five years or five hundred years down the line is the utmost priority for any designer to determine. Sustainability isn't just about recycling; it's also about lifespan and durability.

In structures, we are taught how this material failure or collapse is reached. This is critical for any architect to comprehend: if undue pressure or force is exerted on structural materials, no matter the modulus of elasticity, that material will succumb at some point to the load imposed upon it.

We call this point the yield point, and it is reached when the proportionality between stress and strain (per Hooke's Law) is no longer obeyed by the material given an increase in applied st...

Hello!

2011-09-28T09:03:10-04:00

Hi there! My name is Robert Stroup and I'm currently a graduate student at Lehigh University. The title of my blog - Structuralism 2.0 - is a reference to my own recent history. To put it short, structural engineering is my second degree (architecture being my first). But as I've learned here (at Lehigh), there are many overlaps between the two fields that isn't written about enough in the design community at large. There are architects, such as Santiago Calatrava, who have prided themselves on being structural engineers previously in their life. And since engineering and architecture have to coexist within professional sectors, there will always be people like me who earn dual degrees in both fields. However, it is only seldom that we, the viewing public, see the science in the art. What makes the metal bend? Why does the glass curve gracefully? What is the underlying structure? These are questions that belie the language of architecture, which is often written in steel...