Three-year Academic Project
Advances and Accelerates More Appropriate Building
Methods
International building design
engineering firm. Newtecnic, and the Engineering Department at the University of
Cambridge (UK), have completed a 3-year knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) to
develop a new generation of components, load bearing connections and associated
design methods for composite concrete building facades.
Following this initial project,
Newtecnic is continuing and expanding the work in its recently formed Cambridge
R&D office and in the US through partnerships with the University of Texas
at Austin, and UCLA.
The partnership addressed the
need for new building products and manufacturing and installation methods for
complex building envelopes. It has enabled invention and innovation in design
and testing of components and connections for fibre-reinforced and
ultra-high-performance concrete facades on real-world building projects. These
include the Zaha Hadid designed Central Bank of Iraq and Grand Theatre de Rabat,
Istanbul’s City Museum designed by Salon Architects, as well as other projects
in Turkey, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia.
The research covered: fast
nonlinear analysis (FNA), finite element analysis, design assisted by testing,
bonding of structural elements, wind tunnel procedures, glass structural design,
fatigue due to wind action, localised stress concentration, concrete static
fatigue and testing of connections. Workflows and methods for testing have now
been developed for these factors.
Newtecnic CEO Andrew Watts said,
“By applying peer reviewed academic rigour to the development of new methods for
testing concrete facade components, assemblies and connections, our objectives
have been fully met. Investing in 3 years of intensive research means we can now
very quickly apply standard tests to understand and verify components for
fatigue and wind load over time on any project. This will save time on all
existing and future projects. With this new system of advanced processes, we can
efficiently accelerate the productivity of better solutions for advanced,
exciting but affordable projects around the world.”
Because the knowledge gained
through this partnership allows projects to be developed based on the real
physical behaviour of components Newtecnic can design engineer more ambitious
and complex building enclosures that are lighter, stronger and precisely quality
assured.
Dr Mauro Overend, director of
the Glass & Facade Technology Research Group at the University of Cambridge,
and the KTP Principal Investigator, said, “Conducting this work almost
exclusively from first principles means that the construction industry now has
access to newly discovered knowledge and know-how. This provides opportunities
for companies to overcome the limitations of existing standards and to
engineer complex freeform building
envelopes is a safe and resource efficient manner."
