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SPACE FRAMES Akshay

Rishabh
 WHAT ARE SPACEFRAMES?
• Space frames are essentially three dimensional trusses able to span in
two directions. They may be flat for use as roofs, walls or inclined
walls, or may be curved to form continuous barrel type roof
geometries. Flat frames used as roofs sometimes have slight cambers
to direct water to appropriate roof outlets. Space frames allow for
easy service distribution within their depth and can provide light
elegant structural solutions.
• Depth: Span/40
• Typical maximum length: 100 m
 HISTORY OF
• SPACEFRAMES
Space frames were independently developed by Alexander Graham Bell around 1900 and Buckminster Fuller
in the 1950s. Bell's interest was primarily in using them to make rigid frames for nautical and aeronautical
engineering, with the tetrahedral truss being one of his inventions.
• Buckminster Fuller's focus was architectural structures; his work had greater influence. Introduction of the
first space grid system called MERO in 1943 in Germany initiated the use of space trusses in architecture.

DESIGN METHOD
• The simplest form of space frame is a horizontal slab Of interlocking square pyramids and tetrahedral built from Aluminium or tubular steel struts.
• In many ways this looks like the horizontal object of a tower crane repeated many times to make it wider. A stronger form is composed of interlocking tetrahedral in
which all the struts have unit length .
• More technically this is referred to as an isotropic vector matrix or in a single unit width an octet truss .
• Space frames are typically designed using a rigidity matrix. The special characteristic of the stiffness matrix in an architectural space frame is the independence of the
angular factors. If the joints are sufficiently rigid, the angular deflections can be neglected, simplifying the calculations.
SPACE FRAME
COMPONENTS
TYPE OF SPACEFRAMES
• According to Curvature
• Flat covers
• Spherical domes
• Barrel vaults

(b) (c)
(a)
Fig (a) Flat cover ; (b) Spherical dome ; (c) Barrel vault
• According to grid layers
• Single Layer
• Double layer

(a) (b)

Fig (a) Single layer ; (b) Double layer