The 2017–18 design and construction of ice composite structures in Harbin

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There has been a long tradition in making ice structures, but the development of technical improvements for making ice buildings is a new field with just a handful of researchers. Most of the projects were realized by professors in cooperation with their students as part of their education in architecture and civil engineering. The following professors have realized ice projects in this setting: Heinz Isler realized some experiments since the 1950s; Tsutomu Kokawa created in the past three decades several ice domes in the north of Japan with a span up to 25 m; Lancelot Coar realized a number of fabric formed ice shell structures including fiberglass bars and hanging fabric as a mold for an ice shell in 2011 and in 2015 he produced an fabric-formed ice origami structure in cooperation with MIT (Caitlin Mueller) and VUB (Lars de Laet). Arno Pronk realized several ice projects such as the 2004 artificially cooled igloo, in 2014 and 2015 dome structures with an inflatable mold in Finland and in 2016–2019, an ice dome, several ice towers and a 3D printed gridshell of ice in Harbin (China) as a cooperation between the Universities of Eindhoven & Leuven (Pronk) and Harbin (Wu and Luo). In cooperation between the University of Alberta and Eindhoven two ice beams were realized during a workshop in 2020. In this paper we will present the motivation and learning experiences of students involved in learning-by-doing by realizing one large project in ice. The 2014–2016 projects were evaluated by Sanders and Overtoom; using questionnaires among the participants by mixed cultural teams under extreme conditions. By comparing the results in different situations and cultures we have found common rules for the success of those kinds of educational projects. In this paper we suggest that the synergy among students participating in one main project without a clear individual goal can be very large. The paper will present the success factors for projects to be perceived as a good learning experience.

Section: The Chinese Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Success factors in the realization of large ice projects in education

Pronk

Luo

et al. 2021

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“…For ease of use in practical engineering, Relative humidity of air, which is closely related to saturated vapor pressure and vapor pressure, is introduced in this paper, as shown in equation (2):…”

Section: Theory and Experimental Methods Of Ice Sublimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a new type of ice and snow structure, long-span ice composite shell structure has attracted the attention of researchers in recent years. 1,2 The fiber reinforced ice (FRI) 3 is widely used in ice composite shell in cold regions. The ice composite structure is formed by mixing a certain proportion of pulp fibers in water to form a homogeneous composite aqueous solution, and then spraying and freezing in low temperature environment through aerated membrane template 4 and spray construction technology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sublimation of composite ice and its influence on performance of ice shells

Huang

Chen

2021

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The long-span ice composite shell structure is a new type of ice and snow structure developed in recent years. The engineering practice of ice composite shell shows that sublimation is one of the important reasons for its damage and even collapse. In this paper, we firstly supplemented the existing H-K equation and obtained the revised ice sublimation equation through indoor evaporative plate experiment considering the influence of admixtures and wind speed. Afterwards, combining the simulations of solar radiation and CFD, the numerical simulation of sublimation distribution on the surface of were realized by programming in Grasshopper platform. During sublimation, the thickness of the ice composite shell decreases by 0.38 mm every 10 days and the sublimation rate on the sunny side was 1.7 times that on the shady side. Finally, the static performance and stability of the sublimated ice composite spherical shell were analyzed. After 70 days of sublimation, the thickness of the ice composite shell structure becomes thinner and uneven, which leads its sensitivity to external load increases.

“…The structure is shown in Figure 1. 1,2 This thin shell ice tower set a new world record, replacing the 21 m high ice structure which was realized in Finland in January 2015. 3 The ice tower was located at the Maple Town Outlets in Harbin.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural performance under solar radiation of the 30.5-meter-high Flamenco Ice Tower

Mergny

Pronk

et al. 2021

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Structural performance under solar radiation for structures in ice or ice composite is of vital importance. In this paper, the performance of the 30.5-meter-high Flamenco Ice Tower is numerically studied in detail. To carry out this research, material properties of ice composite are first studied based on different types of tests. Subsequently, structural performance of the ice tower under solar radiation is analyzed in ABAQUS. Through this research, the simulation method for structural performance of shell structures in ice composite is tested to be successful, which will contribute to the future development and applications of ice structures.