Abstract
In this paper we introduce a novel design to fabrication method called three-dimensional fibre placement in wood (3D-FPW) and demonstrate its applicability for lightweight hybrid timber structures. 3D-FPW allows for the joining and reinforcement through a combination of (1) minimally invasive subtractive CNC milling operations during the prefabrication of wooden building components and (2) the subsequent insertion of continuous fibrous materials to reinforce them and/or connect them on-site. Although natural fibres can be used for such technique, the presented work focuses on CFRP tows - that have a special advantage as they can be cured via electrical current in-place without oven or autoclave while the wood material acts both as insulator and formwork. The three-dimensional geometries of the discussed fibrous arrangements are hardly limited in their form which makes precise computational design strategies the cornerstone for an effective exploration, understanding and exploitation of the design potentials of such structures. We show how principal local stress-directions, fabrication specifications as well as design- and environmental considerations can be considered to form-find meaningful fibrous layouts within such structures. The proposed technique most notably creates novel performance-spectrums for sustainable, ultra-lightweight bespoke wood architecture by enabling tailor- made bending resistant on-site connections, that break free from added weight, expense and the intensive energy footprint of steel connectors. We further discuss our investigations within this framework through the prototypical fabrication of physical demonstrators that represent a comprehensive set of wood building system typologies: custom fibre-reinforced slab plates, a segmented plate shell structure and a polygonal lattice shell structure.
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