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Hygroscopically actuated wood elements for weather responsive and self-forming building parts – Facilitating upscaling and complex shape changes

[Display omitted] •Wood bilayers self-deform in response to changes of relative humidity.•Monoclastic, anticlastic and synclastic curvature can be achieved.•Curvature pattern is controlled by material related design principles.•Upscaling of wood bilayers to metre scale is feasible.•New applications...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Construction & building materials 2018-03, Vol.165, p.782-791
Main Authors: Wood, D., Vailati, C., Menges, A., Rüggeberg, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:[Display omitted] •Wood bilayers self-deform in response to changes of relative humidity.•Monoclastic, anticlastic and synclastic curvature can be achieved.•Curvature pattern is controlled by material related design principles.•Upscaling of wood bilayers to metre scale is feasible.•New applications for wood in construction and climate adaptive architecture. For the performance of wood as a building material, its dimensional changes in response to alterations of relative humidity are commonly perceived as an adverse effect. Recently, this material inherent property has been proposed to be utilized in a smart way. Employing the bilayer principle, controlled and reversible shape changes in response to changes of relative humidity were demonstrated. Wood naturally inherits a unique combination of material properties specifically suitable for large-scale shape-changing parts. While being environmentally responsive, it offers high mechanical stiffness throughout shape-change, ease of machining and working, and sustainable availability in large sizes and quantities. In this study, we demonstrate design principles for achieving a range of shape changing patterns such as uni- and bi-directional surface curvature of wood and wood-hybrid bilayers with both negative (hyperboloid curvature) and positive Gaussian curvature (spherical curvature). In parallel, we have developed suitable joints to join multiple elements to facilitate upscaling in length and width while maintaining shape-change. The ability to design and control the type and magnitude of curvature for specific sizes, shapes, and aspect ratios open the opportunity for a new class of large-scale weather responsive elements and self-forming building components.
ISSN:0950-0618
1879-0526
DOI:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.12.134