Hybrid FRP-Timber Building System and Material System Development

HYBRID FRP-TIMBER BUILDING SYSTEM AND MATERIAL SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT FOR LONG-SPAN STRUCTURES AND EXISTING BUILDING STOCK EXTENSIONS 

Conceived as an extension of Research Project RP 11-1, this project will address the fundamental research challenges encountered in the development of novel coreless filament wound fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) building systems. Three main challenges have been identified and formalised: the weakness of such systems in creating continuous surfaces and thus properly enclosing a space, the relatively long production time of the construction elements and, ultimately, the heavy environmental footprint of the predominantly used materials.

One of the main consequences of the filigree or lattice-like configuration of coreless filament wound fibre elements is their inherent inability to create continuous surfaces and thus define hermetic architectural spaces. This project will focus on solutions that address this shortcoming by combining the lattice-like filaments with two-dimensional timber plates using mechanical fasteners. This project will explore the design space for such FRP-timber hybrid components, taking into account their architectural function, while at the same time enhancing their structural capabilities, with the timber plates redistributing live loads and the fibres providing structural depth to the system.

From a fabrication point of view, the timber plates can potentially become an integral part of the winding frame, reducing the complexity of the overall fabrication setup. This reduction in complexity will be the first step towards the goal of reducing the overall production time. This will also be achieved by using two robots to wind an element simultaneously. A central aspect of this research project will then be the exploration of the design space for FRP-timber hybrid elements enabled by the augmentation of the fabrication platform.

To address the issue of the high environmental footprint of the materials used to date for coreless filament wound (CFW) elements, this project will investigate alternative combinations of fibres (natural, renewable or semi-synthetic) and resin systems, building on the preliminary studies carried out in Research Project RP 11-1. The aim of this project will be to extend the range of materials suitable for CFW and to define sensible fibre-resin material combinations for specific building elements geometries and configurations.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

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

TEAM

Dr.-Ing. Marta Gil Pérez (ITKE)
Dr.-Ing. Christoph Zechmeister (ICD)
Tzu-Ying Chen (ITKE)
Rebeca Duque (ICD)
Renan Prandini (ITKE)