This demonstrator, developed within the SFB/TRR 280 sfbtrr280.de/en/, displays the concept of topological interlocking, i.e., blocks are held together by a peripheral frame and are restrained from moving. The block and the assembly were developed in A04. The blocks were manufactured by concrete 3D-printing in Dresden (D01). The manufacturing of the frame and assembling was done in Aachen (C02). The mechanical behavior was tested (A01, A04) and the frame and assembly were modelled in a CAD (A05).
Versatile Block
The Versatile Block was developed in A04 by exploiting crystallographic symmetries and deforming a square continuously into a rectangle, such that every intermediate step yields a fundamental domain for several crystallographic groups. More on the Versatile Block:
Tom Goertzen, Alice Niemeyer, and Wilhelm Plesken. Topological interlocking via symmetry.
In Proc. of the 6th fib International Congress 2022, pages 1235–1244. Novus Press, Oslo,
Norway, 06 2022
Reymond Akpanya, Tom Goertzen, Sebastian Wiesenhuetter, Alice C. Niemeyer, and Jörg
Noennig. Topological interlocking, truchet tiles and self-assemblies: A construction-kit for civil engineering design. In Judy Holdener, Eve Torrence, Chamberlain Fong, and Katherine Seaton, editors, Proceedings of Bridges 2023: Mathematics, Art, Music, Architecture, Culture, pages 61–68, Phoenix, Arizona, 2023. Tessellations Publishing, https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2023/bridges2023-61.pdf
Simulation
The mechanical behavior of the underlying assembly (generated by A04) was analysed together with A01.
More on this: Tom Goertzen, Domen Macek, Lukas Schnelle, Meike Weiß, Stefanie Reese, Hagen Holthusen, and Alice C. Niemeyer. Mechanical Comparison of Arrangement Strategies for Topological Interlocking Assemblies. doi: 10.48550 https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.01958
Model
The assembly of the blocks together with a frame consisting of four parts were modeled by A05 and A04.
Printing
The blocks were concrete 3D-printed in Dresden by D01. Here, a printing path provided by A04 was employed.
Demonstrator
The frame was manufactured and the overall structure assembled by C02.
Acknowledgement
This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – SFB/TRR 280. Project-ID: 417002380.