Structural design methodology in Integrally-Attached Timber Plate structures

The immediate application of research discoveries requires a global and exact understanding of the structure under consideration. To gain insight into the complex behavior of structures, numerical simulations are carried out in parallel to physical experiments and digital fabrication, computer-aided geometry explorations, and assembly planning. The role of the digital model in the process of designing timber structures is to open the field of possibilities to new structural forms, new construction methods, and consequently, new assembly technologies. The design framework introduced in this chapter aims to include the geometry generation, the definition of the assembly sequence, the fabrication process of the wood-wood connections and their mechanical behavior, kinematic of timber plates, equilibrium equations that govern the structural behavior, and associated numerical simulations of Integrally-Attached Timber Plate (IATP) structures. This chapter is then supported by Chapter 3, where a wide range of case studies from medium- to large-scale structures is presented.