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Written discussion
䊏 This paper presents a new concept for movable theatres that could be erected and closes 28 May
retractable roof structures. The new dismantled in only a few hours and by a small 1999
structures consist of a foldable lattice of number of people.3 Pinero’s concept was based
beams connected by cylindrical joints, to on expandable trusses, forming a kind of three-
which covering panels or membranes are dimensional lazy tongs. Fig. 2 shows a recent
attached. These structures fold towards their implementation of this concept in a design for
perimeter and there is practically no limit to a dismountable roof cover for a swimming
their shape. Solutions to the key problems pool.4 This structure consists of a membrane,
that have to be solved in the course of the attached to three identical expandable trusses
kinematic design of this new type of structure made from aluminium-alloy tubes joined at the
are presented, including two different ways ends and approximately in the middle by
of connecting them to fixed foundation points ‘scissor joints’, which are delivered to the site
while maintaining their internal degree of compactly packaged and with the membrane
mobility, and how to determine the shapes already attached to them. Fig. 3 shows two
of the covering panels to avoid interference photographs taken during the erection process.
during retraction. Each packaged truss is suspended from a single
point, using a crane, and is pulled open from P. E. Kassabian,
the ground; when it is fully open, it is attached Graduate
Engineer, Flint &
to fixed supports. Once all the trusses have
Neill Partnership,
Keywords: buildings, structure and design; been deployed, side by side, they are bolted
structural frameworks together.
4. A structure of this type is, of course, not
automatically retractable. Escrig and his
Introduction associates have devised various schemes for
Retractable roofs are playing an increasingly reducing the amount of manual intervention
important role in the development of flexible required for deployment and retraction, such as
sports facilities that can be operated in ‘optimal reducing the number of expandable trusses to
conditions’, i.e. with the roof open as long as only one, hanging from a permanent arch
allowed by the weather, throughout the year. structure. However, the overall span is then
This requires roofs that can be opened and quite limited, and manual intervention is still
closed in a few minutes, at the push of a button. required to connect or disconnect the structure
A recent report by a working group of the to or from the ground. Z. You, EPSRC
International Association for Shell and Spatial 5. The main problem with the application of Advanced
Structures1 lists 23 retractable roofs, where this particular concept to retractable roofs is Research Fellow,
the movable part typically spans in excess of that it practically rules out the existence of any Department of
Engineering,
50 m, of which 14 were built in the 1990s. The permanent connections to a foundation. It is, University of
most commonly used folding schemes involve however, very well suited to large structures Cambridge
large, rigid elements undergoing translation or that have to be packaged very small, and this
rotation (Fig. 1). To reduce the amount of feature has been exploited by Zeigler 5 for the
ground that remains covered by the roof in the design of pop-up displays.
retracted configuration, these elements are 6. A breakthrough in the development of
often overlapped (Figs 1(a) and 1(b)) or folded concepts for retractable roofs that work as a
(Figs 1(c) and 1(d)). Many variants on these whole, like Pinero’s and Escrig’s structures, but
concepts have been devised. 1,2 which can be permanently attached to their
2. Among the alternative approaches, supports was the Iris Dome concept (Fig. 4),
Fig. 1(e) shows a solution in which the retract- invented by Hoberman.6–8 An important feature
able cover is a flexible membrane, whose of this invention is that the pantograph elements
attachments to a cable net can be moved auto- from which it is made are not of the type used by
matically. This scheme has been used a number Pinero and Escrig, but are made from non- S. Pellegrino,
of times, mainly in Europe, but has proved less straight elements, usually known as angulated Reader in
Structural
robust and durable than the earlier schemes elements, whose properties will be explained in
Engineering,
based on more massive elements. the next section. These pantograph elements Department of
3. A less conventional structural concept support either a membrane cover or partly Engineering,
was pioneered by the Spanish engineer and overlapping, rigid covering elements that can University of
inventor Pinero, who patented a system for move with respect to one another like the scales Cambridge
45
KASSABIAN ET AL.
Fig. 2. Dismountable
cover for a swimming
pool (courtesy of
F. Escrig)
46
RETRACTABLE ROOF
STRUCTURES
Fig. 3. Deployment of
roof elements over a
swimming pool (courtesy
of F. Escrig): two
photographs taken
during erection process
of mobility. The section on ‘covering elements’ (Type II), i.e. the triangles AED and BEC are
presents the results of a kinematic study to similar. The special case where the two types
determine the shapes of the rigid panels that can of element coincide, i.e. AE ¼ DE, BE ¼ CE and
be attached to these foldable structures. w ¼ f, was discovered by Hoberman,7 and it is
These panels provide complete cover in the the element used in the Iris Dome.
fully deployed configuration without any 14. More general foldable elements which
interference during retraction. A discussion also have the property of subtending a constant
concludes the paper. angle a are obtained by ‘cutting’ the element
shown in Fig. 9 at the scissor hinge E and
inserting any number of parallelograms between
Angulated elements the triangles AED and BEC. More precisely, a
13. An angulated element is a pair of kinked, generalized angulated element (GAE) is defined
coplanar rods connected by a cylindrical joint, as a set of interconnected angulated rods that
as shown in Fig. 9. It has been shown by You and form a chain of any number of parallelograms
Pellegrino 9 that the angle a subtended by the with either isosceles triangles (Type I GAE) or
end connectors A, B, C, D of an angulated similar triangles (Type II GAE) at either end;
element does not change when the rods AEC see the examples shown in Fig. 10.
and BED are rotated relative to one another, 15. Foldable structures with many different
if either shapes can be made by forming chains of GAEs,
provided that certain interface conditions are
AE ¼ DE; BE ¼ CE ð1Þ
satisfied between adjacent GAEs (see You and
(Type I), where in general w ⫽ f, i.e. the Pellegrino9 for further details). Also, if certain
triangles AED and BEC are isosceles triangles, global conditions are satisfied, a chain of GAEs
or that forms a closed loop is still a foldable struc-
AE CE ture. Finally, a structure obtained by connecting
¼ and w ¼ f ð2Þ
DE BE a tessellation of parallelograms to a foldable
47
KASSABIAN ET AL.
Layout design
16. The only layouts that will be considered
here are generated by adding tessellations of
parallelograms to (i) a ring formed by two or
more GAEs with at least one axis of symmetry,
or (ii) a ring of similar rhombuses. According to
You and Pellegrino,9 all structures of this type
have an internal degree of mobility. Hence,
provided that they are designed so that different
parts do not interfere, within a sufficient range
of motion, they can provide the basis for the
design of retractable-roof layouts.
17. Consider, for example, the layout shown
in Fig. 11. Its inner ring has been generated by
reflecting the Type I GAE ABCD—which has
isosceles triangles at the ends—through the
symmetry axes mm and nn. Then, a ring of
parallelograms has been connected to the out-
side of this ring (it would have been equally
possible to add one to the inside). Note that the
shape of any foldable structure designed by
the above method is controlled by the shape of
the first ring, as the shape of any parallelogram
that is added is determined by the direction of
the members of the first ring. The only option
available for the parallelograms is whether or
not one puts them in.
18. Once the complete layout has been 20. The two-dimensional solutions gener- Fig. 4. Iris Dome
defined, all adjacent edges that run from the ated by the method described above are easily (courtesy of
perimeter towards the centre, in either a clock- extended to three-dimensional structures, by C. Hoberman)
wise or anticlockwise sense, are made from projecting any two-dimensional solution onto a
continuous, multi-angulated beams, which are surface with the required shape; see Fig. 12.
connected by cylindrical joints at all kink points. Note that during this process each multi-
In Fig. 11 the clockwise elements are repre- angulated rod becomes curved out of its plane
sented by broken lines and the anticlockwise but, of course, all connectors between multi-
elements by solid lines. The existence of an angulated beams must be parallel to the direc-
internal degree of freedom in this structure has tion of projection, in order to maintain the same
already been verified, as its layout coincides degree of kinematic freedom as in the two-
with the intermediate configuration of the model dimensional structure.
shown in Fig. 7.
19. Note that the process described above Supports
does not have a single solution, as there are 21. There are two different ways of con-
many different ways of choosing an inner ring necting to the ground the kinds of retractable
that satisfies the folding conditions stated structure discussed above, without removing
above. Also, in general the shape of the first ring their internal degree of freedom.
will vary during the retraction process and, thus, 22. Structures based on a symmetric layout
a further choice that is available is the stage of can be connected to supports that permit
deployment at which the shape of the first translation within the plane of symmetry. Thus,
ring is defined. For example, the model shown the 2 m diameter model structure shown in Fig. 5
in Fig. 7 was designed to have an elliptical first is supported along its perimeter on six supports
ring in the fully retracted configuration. Note which, during retraction, translate radially without
that its outer edge becomes almost a circle in rotating. The radial deployment of the circular
the fully deployed configuration, shown at the structure is shown in Fig. 13. The magnitude of
top of Fig. 7. A different criterion that could be the edge translation is small in comparison with
used, for example, is the minimization of the the translation of the inner joints, because each
distance travelled by a set of selected joints ring distorts less than the next inner ring. Hence,
which are to be connected to foundation in Fig. 5, each support consists of two parallel
elements. columns connected by cylindrical hinges to the
48
RETRACTABLE ROOF
STRUCTURES
(a)
Fig. 5. Model of
deployable roof (courtesy
of Taiyo Kogyo Co.): (a)
(b) open, (b) closed
ground and to the roof structure. During retrac- radial deployment with an appropriate rigid-body
tion there is a small vertical motion of the whole rotation of the whole structure about its centre, it is
structure. possible to keep at fixed points the instantaneous
23. The second, less intuitive way of sup- centres of motion of all multi-angulated elements that
porting any structure whose first ring consists run in the same sense.
of similar rhombuses is to connect its elements 25. This combined motion has different
to fixed points, which allow rotation but not effects on the clockwise and anticlockwise ele-
translation. The existence and location of such ments that make up the structure, which need to
special fixed points are easiest to show for be examined separately. First, consider a
regular, circular layouts, whose inner ring clockwise element A1 , A 2 , etc. (Fig. 15(a)):
consists of identical rhombuses. OA1 ¼ L sinðv ¹ aÞ= sin a ð3Þ
24. To begin with, consider the same type of
OA 2 ¼ L sin v= sin a ð4Þ
radial motion as that which would be allowed by
radially movable supports. Fig. 14 shows a plot of the etc., and, differentiating the above expressions,
motion of a single clockwise element as it deploys. the radial displacement components of A1 , A 2 ,
The plot also shows the successive positions taken etc. due to a small rigid-body rotation dv asso-
by the instantaneous centres of rotation as this ciated with radial deployment are
motion takes place. As can be seen, these cosðv ¹ aÞ
dr A1 ¼ L dv ð5Þ
instantaneous centres do not remain at a fixed point sin a
but instead lie on a circle whose centre is at the cos v
dr A2 ¼ L dv ð6Þ
origin of the plot. This suggests that, by combining sin a
49
KASSABIAN ET AL.
etc. The tangential components of displacement corresponding points A1 , etc. Therefore, the
of these points, due to a rigid-body rotation magnitude of the displacement vectors is also
about O through the same angle dv, are unchanged, but their directions are such that
these displacements are now parallel. In other
sinðv ¹ aÞ words, this element translates.
dt A1 ¼ L dv ð7Þ
sin a 27. Thus, the final result is surprisingly
sin v simple: the kink points on each of the clockwise
dt A2 ¼L dv ð8Þ
sin a elements of the structure lie on a circle, and
during deployment/retraction they rotate about
etc. the centre of this circle. The corresponding
26. The remaining displacement vectors motion for each of the anticlockwise elements
have magnitude is a pure translation; see Fig. 16.
q 28. Further analysis shows that fixed points
dA1 ¼ dr 2A1 þ dt 2A1 ¼ L dv= sin a ð9Þ exist for any foldable structure whose first ring
q is a chain of similar rhombuses whose edges
dA2 ¼ dr 2A2 þ dt 2A2 ¼ L dv= sin a ð10Þ form equal angles v with the sides of a polygon
of any shape. These fixed points lie on a scaled
etc., and directions at angles v ¹ a, v, etc., version of this polygon, rotated by v. The loca-
respectively, with the radii through A1 , A 2 , etc. tion of the fixed point C for the clockwise
as shown in Fig. 15(a). Thus, it can be concluded element A1 , A 2 , A 3 of a general plan shape is
that each multi-angulated element A1 , A 2 , etc. shown in Fig. 17.
rotates about the fixed point C shown in the
figure. Note that R ¼ L=ð2 sin aÞ. Next, consider Covering elements
an anticlockwise element (Fig. 15(b)). Since 29. Practical roof structures require, in
OB1 ¼ OA 1 , etc., both the radial and the addition to a retractable bar structure formed by
tangential components of displacement of the multi-angulated elements, as described above,
points B1 , etc. are the same as for the some forms of covering superstructure. This
50
RETRACTABLE ROOF
STRUCTURES
covering structure can be designed in several be no interference between their plan projec-
different ways. For example, one might cover tions. This approach reduces the complexity
the whole roof with a single, flexible membrane of the kinematic analysis and makes it easy
attached to some or all of the multi-angulated to carry out interference checks but, of
elements. However, in view of the durability course, poses unnecessary restrictions on the
problems that have been experienced with solution. However, once the shapes of a set of
previous retractable structures where mem- panels that satisfy these constraints have been Fig. 8. Simple, trellis-type
branes are subject to repeated stressing and determined, it is often possible to enlarge the foldable structure
destressing, as mentioned previously, it is likely
that this type of solution would suffer from
fatigue problems, because the membrane θ
would lose tension and form many creases
when the supporting structure was retracted.
30. The alternative solution that is presented
180˚–θ
here is to divide the cover into separate panels,
each of fixed shape. These panels could be
prestressed membrane elements, each attached
to a single multi-angulated element, or stiff
plates of suitable shape, as shown in Fig. 5.
Indeed, the plates might even replace some of
the multi-angulated elements.
31. A method for determining the plan
shapes of the covering elements, so that they
leave no gaps when the structure is fully closed
and do not interfere with other elements when
the structure retracts, will be presented. A
simple, preliminary approach to this problem
is to require that, regardless of the three-
dimensional shape of the panels, there should
51
KASSABIAN ET AL.
C
E B
φ
P E
D
D C B
E
A
A
Fig. 9. Angulated
O element
C
J
I
E
D B
P
H
α
A
O M N
(a)
C
J I
B
D
P
H
α
A Fig. 10. Generalized
angulated elements:
O M N
(a) Type I and
(b) (b) Type II
m B C m
Radial
direction
θ+2α A4 A4 A3=B3
θ+α θ+2α
A5 A5 B4
L A3 L L L L
θ+3α L
δA2 B5
L
L θ θ L
A2 B2 A2
R
δA1
L L L
C 2α
R
90–α
θ–α
θ–α A1
B1
α α αα αααα
A1
A3 L2
L1
A2
θ
θ
θ θ
θ
L2 θ
λ
θ L1
A1
θ
γ C
θ β
α
L1(sin γ/sin α)=L2(sin λ /sin β)
Fig. 17. Point C is a fixed
O point for angulated
element A1 , A2 , A3
(a)
(b)
56