An innovative approach to manufacture thin-walled glass fibre reinforced concrete for tomorrow's architectural buildings envelopes with complex geometries

Abstract

Glass fibre reinforced concrete (GFRC) elements have become a sought after cladding material since their introduction as rain screen cladding for buildings. To advance GFRC for a range of complex geometry building envelopes this also requires advances in existing moulding techniques for thin-walled GFRC elements. To do so it is necessary to define the current state of thin-walled GFRC elements and the constraints and limits placed on them by existing production techniques. This paper identifies the current architectural and aesthetic requirements of thin-walled GFRC elements and maps their range of complexity, from 1-D to 3-D, to the limits of the most appropriate production method. This will inform guidelines for the future design development of thin-walled GFRC and enable an innovative approach to further advance the moulding techniques for thin walled GFRC elements for a variety of complex geometry building envelopes. The paper concludes on which further steps need to be taken to advance thin-walled glass fibre reinforced concrete for tomorrow's architectural buildings envelopes with complex geometries.

Innovative free-form glass fiber reinforced concrete (GRC) panel

“…The other material of this research, GRC, has been used as a thin-walled form since its initial development in the 1970s due to its durability, relatively light weight, weather resistance and easy moldability into specific dimensions and shapes (Henriksen, Lo, & Knaack, 2015). In the last decade, architectural cladding systems of GRC panels have been used in several remarkable free-form buildings, including the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center, in Baku; the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the Fundation Louis Vuitton, in Paris; and the Qatar National Museum, in Doha.…”

“…Since wooden molds are usually available for flat or single curved geometries with radii (r>0.5 m), the wooden surface sheets must be sufficiently thin to facilitate the forming. Wooden molds are an expensive choice for one-off double curved panels (Henriksen et al, 2015). Rubber molds are an alternative choice, but a preliminary "negative" mold is needed to create the "positive" rubber mold, which, again, is not cost-effective unless there is a considerable repetition of the form.…”

“…For the production of free-form panels, flexible molds (FM) are an alternative (Pronk & Houtman, 2005) (Pronk, Seffinga, el Ghazi, & Schuijers, 2015) (Henriksen et al, 2015) (Schipper & Grunewald, 2014), which allows for the singularity of each piece at no added cost. The performance of each panel starts with the configuration of the flexible bed to obtain the desired shape and then the concrete mixture or GRC is poured onto it.…”

A new method to advance complex geometry thin-walled glass fibre reinforced concrete elements

“…Architecturally aesthetic demands require building envelope panels to have a perceived depth to make the façade appear monolithic [20,8]. This can be resolved by adding an edge return to the panel.…”

“…In an attempt to advance discretised shell structures [6,7] it has been shown [8] that it would require the development of a new moulding system with reduced costs and mould production times. Existing research on glass fibre reinforced concrete (GFRC) [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] forms the basis for this paper to advance concrete shell structures and thin-walled façade elements.…”