Principles of geometrical shaping effective shell structures forms

Abstract

The paper concerns geometrical shaping of shell structures composed of individual shells arranged effectively in space that is in a way similar to properties of a regular, geometrical surface with taking into account straight lines and planes normal to the base surface. The individual segments are made up of unidirectional folded flat sheets transformed into shell shapes. A freedom of transversal width increments of these sheets is assured while transforming, which ensures their possible small effort – such a deformation of a material intended for transferring functional loads but which makes restrictions concerning the shell sheets shapes. These shape restrictions are provoked by the strictly determined stiffness characteristics of the shell sheets and cause of the edge or discontinuous areas between adjacent shells segments in the shell structure. The method of delimiting great diversity of effective, compound shell forms whose general shapes are close to regular, geometrical surfaces characterized by any sign of the Gaussian curvature is presented. Innovation of the way also consists in integration of the form of a whole building object (walls and shell roof). It is achieved by division of the elevation walls into flat areas contained in planes close to planes normal to the base surface as accurate as possible. The segment’s directrices are also contained in these planes. The presented issues are the ground for elaborating a method of shaping of the light gauge steel shell structures and their further integration with whole building objects.