Natural Fibre Structures

METHODS TO DESIGN, FABRICATE AND MONITOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF NOVEL LOAD-BEARING COMPONENTS FROM NATURAL FIBER MATERIALS AS RESOURCE-EFFICIENT, DIGITALLY PRODUCED FIBER COMPOSITE SYSTEMS: PROJECT LIVMATS PAVILION

The project aims to develop methods to design, manufacture and monitor the first-time application of natural fiber composites in a robotic coreless winding process for the production of load-bearing components. These methods will be applied in the context of a large-scale demonstrator project, the "livMatS Pavilion" at the Botanical Garden in Freiburg.

Methods for the design, simulation and fabrication of light-weight fiber composite structures have previously been developed by ICD and ITKE and have been applied in a number of successful demonstrator buildings to demonstrate the possibilities of digital technologies as the future of construction. These experimental lightweight structures were computationally designed and robotically manufactured with synthetically produced fiber composite materials.

The main focus of the current project is the transfer of these principles for the construction with natural fibers from renewable resources, more specifically continuously spun flax fibers. This will enable a differentiated and adaptable, but also resource-efficient and sustainable construction method. In addition to the adaptation of the robotic fabrication process and the development of new methods to design and evaluate these novel material structures, a central challenge in the application of natural fibers in construction is their durability under environmental conditions, especially humidity and UV radiation. A thorough analysis of the mechanical properties and ageing effects under environmental conditions is therefore of central importance for a future application of this construction method.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Prof. Achim Menges
Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD), University of Stuttgart
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Knippers
Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE), University of Stuttgart

RESEARCHERS

Marta Gil Pérez (ITKE)
Tzu-Ying Chen (ITKE)
Christoph Schlopschnat (ICD)
Katja Rinderspacher (ICD)

PARTNERS

Albert‐Ludwigs‐Universität Freiburg, Cluster of Excellence –
Living, Adaptive and Energy‐Autonomous Material Systems, FIT –
Freiburg Center for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies –
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rühe, Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck

FibR GmbH, Stuttgart – Moritz Dörstelmann, Ondrej Kyjanek, Philipp Essers, Philipp Gülke

FUNDING

DBU Projektförderung – AZ 37101/01-25