Greetings, fellow urglers ;-)

I've made a page about triaxial polytunnels.

In particular I've created the following pages:

Triaxial index : http://hexdome.com/triaxial/
Weaving : http://hexdome.com/triaxial/weaving/
Polytunnel : http://hexdome.com/triaxial/polytunnel/
Sphere : http://hexdome.com/triaxial/sphere/

It's probably best to start on the first link.

The material about polytunnels is what's likely to
be of interest to the denizens that inhabit this group.

Basically, I built a model of a triaxial weave
polytunnel, photographed it, wrote some material
about its significance - and then uploaded the results.

To quote from the introductory paragraph:

``Farmers do not need the wide spans and high spaces domes
offer - for them, polytunnels make much more sense.

I looked at conventional polytunnel designs. As far as I can
see they make little structural sense. Their structural
elements often rise straight into the air with little sign
of support. As a result the designs often have to rely on
the use of excessively rigid (and expensive) materials -
and braces.

Polytunnels represent an /excellent/ case for using triaxial
weaving. Triaxial weave is light, resiliant, strong in all
directions, /very/ resistant to shearing forces - and yet
still easy to construct.''

As I go on to argue:

``For a given strength, an intelligent structural design
allows substantially lighter (and cheaper) materials to be
used. In particular, polytunnels of reasonable size can be
constructed along these lines using PVC conduit - which is
an astonishingly inexpensive material. [...]

Polytunnels facilitate growing sensitive, tropical
fruiting plants in northern climes - where much of the
planet's landmass and population reside.''

Thus, I consider polytunnels to have significant economic
importance.

It's my hope that I can contribute to making many of them
cheaper.

Enjoy,
--
__________
|im |yler http://timtyler.org/ Remove lock to reply.