Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
The strongest shell structure would be a geodesic spheroid.
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I've moved to geodesic-like design from the box-like thinking I used in earlier iterations. I had a great conversation with an actual aeronautical engineer, and he summed up how to build solid frameworks succinctly: "maximize interlocking triangles."
Apparently triangles are the simplest building block that keep their shape under a variety of loads from different angles. So if we can interlock them, it adds a lot of structural rigidity. I'm finding triangles overlapping rectangles are particularly effective. The only issue I'm having is creating "smooth planes", because the framework bars have to go "over and under" each other, so to speak.