Work

C-Tubes: Design and Optimization of Tubular Structures Composed of Developable Strips

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We introduce C-tubes , 3D tubular structures composed of developable surface strips. C-tubes can be understood as a generalization of Monge surfaces—a special class of sweep surfaces—towards the recently introduced conenets. This observation allows formulating a constructive algorithm to create tubular structures that ensures developability of the constituent surfaces, while significantly broadening the design space. Our novel form-finding tool enables design exploration by solving for the input variables of the constructive algorithm so that the C-tube best conforms to user-specified objectives. We discuss several case studies that illustrate the versatility of our approach for the design and fabrication of complex structures, with applications in architecture, furniture, and lighting design.

Source: ACM Transactions on Graphics

DOI: 10.1145/3730933

Authors: Michele Vidulis, Klara Mundilova, Quentin Becker, Florin Isvoranu, Mark Pauly

Institution: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Language: English

Topic: Architecture and Computational Design

Subfield: Architecture

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung

Awards: Computational Design of Actuated Shape-Morphing Surfaces, G786358775