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Glass Sculpture by Jenny Smith
Design brief: To provide technical engineering support and design for a 2.5m glass sculpture displayed at NZ Sculpture Onshore exhibit 2008.
Through a collaborative effort between Materials Optimization’s Mark Hildesley and 3Design Services’s Derek Goldfinch, the technical engineering and structural design was completed in Solidworks.
The composite nature of the cast glass proved a challenge for standard FEA testing and some good old fashioned non-destructive testing was commenced in order to determine a working load schedule for the design.
The sculpture had several common structural engineering issues that required attention. The design was a loaded column that would be subjected to variable side loading (wind-age). The small foot profile of the glass modules meant that the structure (2.5m high) was going to cause a large moment and the glass modules being a non ductile material required dampening to avoid material failure under compression.
An internal structural support system was created to reduce the effects of a top heavy moment. This system comprised of a series of guide wire supports, a fixed centre rod, tensioners, and buckling support modules. Dampening was achieved by using acrylic spacers which also served as registration locators for each glass module.
The ability to import sketch pictures directly into Solidworks proved immensely useful. Each glass module profile was unique and required accurate spline creation in order to develop the acrylic spacer part.
Compression would be required in order to maintain structural integrity and this was achieved by a 7mm stainless top plate providing approx 150kg force to the column.
A combination of machining methods were used in the manufacture of the stainless and acrylic parts. Abrasive Water Jet Cutting Services Ltd provided a fast and cost-effective turn-around on all stainless and acrylic profile cuts. Sutech Ltd completed the final acrylic locator machining with their 3axis mill.
Final installation at the exhibit site in Devonport Auckland. External guide wires were connected for added support due to the cliff-top location and expected 60knot plus wind forecast over the following two weeks of exhibiting.
Interestingly enough, another artist’s $65,000.00 sculpture was lost due to high winds…
Design brief: To provide technical engineering support and design for a 2.5m glass sculpture displayed at NZ Sculpture Onshore exhibit 2008.
Jenny’s cast glass sculpture design involved 19 x 4kg cast glass
modules stacked to a height of 2.5m. An interesting project that
required some clever engineering that wouldn’t detract from the finely
crafted glass modules and overall design concept.
Through a collaborative effort between Materials Optimization’s Mark Hildesley and 3Design Services’s Derek Goldfinch, the technical engineering and structural design was completed in Solidworks.
The composite nature of the cast glass proved a challenge for standard FEA testing and some good old fashioned non-destructive testing was commenced in order to determine a working load schedule for the design.
The sculpture had several common structural engineering issues that required attention. The design was a loaded column that would be subjected to variable side loading (wind-age). The small foot profile of the glass modules meant that the structure (2.5m high) was going to cause a large moment and the glass modules being a non ductile material required dampening to avoid material failure under compression.
An internal structural support system was created to reduce the effects of a top heavy moment. This system comprised of a series of guide wire supports, a fixed centre rod, tensioners, and buckling support modules. Dampening was achieved by using acrylic spacers which also served as registration locators for each glass module.
The ability to import sketch pictures directly into Solidworks proved immensely useful. Each glass module profile was unique and required accurate spline creation in order to develop the acrylic spacer part.
Compression would be required in order to maintain structural integrity and this was achieved by a 7mm stainless top plate providing approx 150kg force to the column.
A combination of machining methods were used in the manufacture of the stainless and acrylic parts. Abrasive Water Jet Cutting Services Ltd provided a fast and cost-effective turn-around on all stainless and acrylic profile cuts. Sutech Ltd completed the final acrylic locator machining with their 3axis mill.
Final installation at the exhibit site in Devonport Auckland. External guide wires were connected for added support due to the cliff-top location and expected 60knot plus wind forecast over the following two weeks of exhibiting.
Interestingly enough, another artist’s $65,000.00 sculpture was lost due to high winds…
