Rheotomic Surfaces: Need Help to Generate Streamlines

hi everybody,

i am working on a mould system for concrete shell structures. the concrete shell itself will be a double curved ribbed structure, that relates to gothic vaults. The ribs are densifying around the coloums and then moving the forces down into the ground.

in my case, the ribs that are following the control surface should have the same optical and structural effect as rheotomic curves / streamlines / electric field lines...

here are some ref images:

college chapel, cambridge:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/King%27s_College...

daniel pikers rheotomic surfaces:

http://spacesymmetrystructure.wordpress.com/rheotomic-surfaces/

i can`t figure out, how to set up a gh-definition to get the streamlines. i used daniel`s "magnetic displace" and the "jellyfish" definition. i already found a way to extract a part of the rheotomic streamlines (horizontal sections through a displaced surface grid). i cant figure out the rest.... maybe someone already did this in gh or has some experience he would share with me???

deadline is in a few days... so please help :)

thanks, jakob

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by JAK on March 9, 2010 at 4:53am

i know, that there are complex numbers involved in the whole process of generating rheotomic surfaces. i`ve already been using gh for a while but i never figured out this part of it...

Permalink Reply by Daniel Piker on March 9, 2010 at 7:22am

Hi Jakob,

I'm afraid I can't actually share that definition now for commercial reasons.
I will be publishing a mathematical paper on the technique at some point though.

Sounds like you are along the right lines anyway. Also, if you are using somewhat regular/symmetrical arrangements of sources/sinks then maybe you will find some help in the paper of Chris Williams on generating bone-like forms with complex functions.

Permalink Reply by JAK on March 9, 2010 at 7:57am

hi daniel,

thanks for your reply. i totally understand, that you can`t share all your definitions, even though my project has no commercial purpose. your jellyfish definition is already quite helpful. i will do some more research on my own. it is a fascinating part of complex analysis!

which paper are u talkin about? is it in his book "digital tectonics"???

Permalink Reply by Daniel Piker on March 9, 2010 at 10:48am

This paper:

http://people.bath.ac.uk/abscjkw/OrganicForms/NsugbeWilliams.pdf

Permalink Reply by RWNB on February 9, 2011 at 3:00am