Final Project Plan & Diary

here we go!!

INITIAL IDEAS

Interactive Characteristic Stress Diagram

As a structures professor, my goal is to help architecture students understand how internal forces work when structures carry loads. It’s not an intuitive concept and many students lack the basic knowledge to grasp it easily.

Over time, I have tried different ways to make learning easier. In the image, you can see a small board where I’ve sketched bending moment diagrams for four basic isostatic structures—essential ones for students to learn. I provide each student with a personalized board that includes two graphic scales (1:50 and 1:100) so they can carry it with them. By using it daily, they can memorize key functions and better visualize common stress diagrams.

For my Fab Academy final project, I plan to design a visualization tool where students can experiment with a structure, apply different loads, and see the bending moment diagrams in real-time.

Design Conditions:

• Structures: Must be isostatic.
• Stiffness: Structural elements are assumed to have infinite stiffness.

In my initial idea, I thought about designing an interactive frame where students could place loads, define the beam span, and set its external connections.

Bending bench

But that idea didn’t quite convince me, and I kept brainstorming something more fun, engaging, and intuitive. That’s when I came up with the idea of designing a bench where students could sit, and right in front of them, there’d be a frame with an LED system showing the stress diagrams of the bench in real time, based on their weight.

The bench will have two cantilevers on each side, but the dimensions are still up in the air —I will need to test some wooden beams we have got in the workshop to see how I can make it work. On the main beam of the bench, I’d add individual seats, each equipped with a pressure sensor to measure the loads applied to the structure and their positions. With this data, I’ll design a program to calculate the bending moments at each point where the pressure sensors are placed.

This bench will help students visualize and better understand the forces and reactions in structures in a hands-on way.

Unfinished business

BENCH

• Define the section of the board. Double board with two beams?
• General estimate for maximum load capacity.
• Rounded support: yes/no.
• Symmetrical cantilevers: yes/no.
• Board height: Sufficient for sitting comfortably without feet touching the ground.
• Define the shape of the supports.
• Define the shape of the individual bench (scan and 3D print in parts).
• Define the number of board subdivisions; at least two in the cantilever, ideally three.
• …

ELECTRONICS
Problem-solving steps
For my final project, I need to learn how to simulate the following situations:

1. Figuring out how much load the load cells at the base of each seat can handle.
2. Collecting the data from each of the load cells.
3. Using this data to calculate the bending stress on the beam. I’ll determine the values at 14 points for each section.
4. Once I have the key values, I’ll map them so they can be displayed on the LED matrix.
5. Sending the organized data to the microprocessor, which will visualize the stress diagrams.

LED Frame

• The frame may have the same lonfigut as the bench.
• Vertical dimension: At least one meter. Neutral fiber at the center.
• Proportionally simulate the presence of loads and support reactions.
• Maximum load alarm.
• Graph proportional to the applied loads.
• Possibility of significant values information?
• …

Seats

• Define the pressure sensors: How many per seat? Load capacity, type, price?
• Calculation of support reactions?
• Determination of spans and stresses at each point?
• LED lighting.
• Bending moment diagrams.
• Shear force diagrams?

PARAMETRIC DESIGN

For the parametric design of a wooden bench for bending tests I have used the Grasshopper software in Rhinoceros to design an algorithm that allows the creation of a parametric model of the bench. As I mentioned above, my idea is to initially create a 1:10 scale model of the final model. I will gradually define in more detail the constructive and formal characteristics of the overall design. The advantages of parametric design is that the proposals can be updated dynamically over time.

I have divided the model into the following parts and for each one I have defined the following parameters:

Left: Pin support
Right: Roller support