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last edited 4 years ago

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VRII Meeting

Date: Friday 14th May 2004 Place: SIAL

Present: Mike Xie, Mark Burry, Jiwu Tang, Xiaodong Huang, Peter Felicetti, Andrew Maher, Jane Burry, Yamin Tengono

  1. Mast

Mike and Peter showed an independent French study using a vertical mast. Andrew and Tom have been working on a helical version. The group discussed the opportunities for “varying ground level” so that much of the back-stay work could be undertaken by structure located underground. An optimised solution might be larger a sophisticated foundation design. Mark noted that the optimisation could be cost saving in terms of use of material but other approaches would be needed to tackle the cost of constructing a more complex shape. He will contact Saeid Navarandi at Deakin University to discuss a project considering a flexible system for producing glass reinforced plastic moulds as permanent shuttering that could be applicable in tandem with this work. (Action Mark)

  1. Sagrada Família –stl model for printing

Getting this model to the point where the surface is sufficiently continuous for printing has presented a challenge. There are new tools in Rhino “Bonus tools” that should assist with filling mesh holes. Andrew and Jiwu will continue to work on this to produce a wax model of the ESO mesh model of the passion colonnade. Miike noted that Abacus for Catia 5 is a Finite Element analysis tool that could prove a useful link between processes. Cost approx. $900.

  1. Publications

It was noted that the VRII will need to find alternative sources of funding in the future although it is possible that RMIT will provide a second year’s support. For funding applications it is important to have a good publication output from the current work. An abstract has been accepted fro eCAADe. Mark noted the caution required in referencing the Sagrada Família in this paper, that is, the work should be generalised as far as possible especially as it is in effect reporting on work in progress in the context of the Passion Façade project. A series of technical reports covering all aspects of the work should be underway. These will include expanding on sections of the existing draft report to the Construction Committee of the Sagrada Família church to formally introduce the ESO work and VRII collaboration. SIAL has an existing ISSN serial number. The next meeting will focus on publications, including formatting, serial details of reports and other journals, publications targeted by members of the team. ( Action : ALL)

  1. Processing power

There is a granularity problem with the optimised models. Smoothing is computationally heavy. Can Nastran run on Linux? Could the parallel processing capacity of the “super computer” be harnessed for this? How can the tasks be split for parallel processing in Rhino and Nastran? (Action: Yamin, Jiwu….?)

  1. Next meeting

Friday 28th May 9.30am in SIAL.

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VRII Meeting

Date: Friday 19th March 2004 Place: SIAL

Present: Mike Xie Mark Burry Jiwu Tang Xiaodong Huang Peter Felicetti Andrew Maher

Apologies: Jane Burry Yamin Tengono

Grant Applications.

This discussion was postponed until the next meeting

  1. CATIA ESO link

The transfer of data from CATIA to NASTRAN has now been successfully tested. Nastran is a more powerful structural analysis tool. CATIA FEA is quite limited compared to NASTRAN. Potentially explicit models could be returned to CATIA by taking a WRL model to Rhino to .iges and importing an explicit model into CATIA. This could be useful for the purpose of comparison and incorporating a formal implication of the ESO process into a parametric model.

  1. Hanging Model

The virtual hanging model is underway. The physical model is not yet started. The ESO team is also going to look at the Suspended Arc sculpture for the Valley Gateway Art Integration Project that Andrew Maher and Tom Gooch have modelled in order to investigate other opportunities for the form of the “boom”.

  1. Next meeting

Friday 2nd April in SIAL.

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VRII Meeting

Date: Friday 6th March 2004

Place: SIAL

Present: Mike Xie Mark Burry Jiwu Tang Xiaodong Huang Peter Felicetti Andrew Maher Jane Burry

  1. Extension of funding.

Mark outlined the possibility of the RMIT University funding being extended from one year to two. Grant applications: the work is pertinent to a current Infrastructure grant application and there could also be a VRII group ARC Linkage grant application, second round 2004. 2. Innovation Professors meeting regarding VRIIs? There is suggestion that the University should develop a strategic plan for “areas of strength” building on work across disciplines within the institution. Mike Xie will attend the next of these meetings.

  1. CATIA ESO link

Xiadong has now successfully created a solid and 3D mesh in CATIA. He will continue to explore the programme. The current focus is to exchange information between Catia and Nastran

  1. Hanging Model

John Oxendorf from engineering at MIT has contacted Mark re his intention to do some work with the hanging model. This may become a collaborative axis. The team should start on an immediate physical model (and subsequent computer model) to explore the reciprocity of the forces generated by a hanging form and the compression forces in a masonry structure when the hanging form is mirrored in a horizontal plane. First model description: Four fixed points in a 1m x 1m square with fine chains hung to four more free points 1m below, joined in a 0.5m x 0.5m square configuration. The chains should be fine enough so that will deform in a fluid way. The four lower points can then be eccentrically loaded to observe the effect of redundancy. Later in a similar model, the chains would be replaced by round section small elastic, initially cut to the chain lengths. The effect of elastic modulus can they be explored in a amplified visually representative way. Reference: the work of Heine Isler

  1. Business Plan commercialisation

Peter met with Jane and Yamin to discuss the approach to the business plan. Mark had suggested that Yamin head the process in SIAL and Peter for the Innovative Structures Group. To date this is not making rapid progress. Needed: i) A skeleton structure. (Could be based on SIAL BP or Felicetti/Xie/Weston/Burry model) Yamin can prepare the first draft of this from the SIAL BP before the next meeting. ii) Statements of intent. (At the moment the actual understanding of the services/products that would be offered by a commercial arm does not seem 100% consistent within the team.) Mark and Mike will table short Statements of Intent for discussion at the next meeting.

Peter raised his concerns about the overlap of the plans for this group with the previous business plan of Felicetti/Xie/Weston/Burry and that building on the considerable investment of work prepared for that venture should be referred to Nick Weston initially. Mark suggested that Nick could perhaps be recommended to the University as a preferred consultant for legal and fiscal issues. Mark raised his concern that the group is now very well funded for academic research by the University for a limited period. The growth of a commercialisable entity from this work would be supported within the University. The opportunity should be realised quickly within the current funding structure.

  1. Next meeting

Friday 19th March in SIAL.

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