Form finding of twisted interlaced structures: a hybrid approach

Our study presents a set of form-finding procedures to explore curved structures made from interlaced panels. Interlacing introduces a particular coupling between assembly components which has to be formulated along with a pertinent flexible body model. We examine here a hybrid approach: panels are simulated a first time using an elastic rod model formulated within a constrained elastic energy minimization where user can virtually buckle, twist and interlace strip assemblies. A thin shell model dynamically integrated comes complementary to the rod approach in order to resolve intersections in case of panels colliding while interlaced. Some conceptual structures are presented to demonstrated the procedure.