Nuevo concepto de puente de vigas inflable ligero, modular y portátil

Carles Estruch Tena

Dr. Eugenio Oñate Dr. Benjamín Suárez

The doctoral thesis has been carried outwithin the framework of the Plan of Industrial Doctorates of the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia. This new modality of doctorate, in collaboration between universities and companies, aims to contribute to the competitiveness and internationalization of the Catalan industrial fabric, retaining talent and placing the doctoral students in conditions to develop R+D+i projects in a company. The thesis is the result of a research work carried out between 2013 and 2016 within the company Buildair – Ingeniería y Arquitectura with the aim of developing new strategic commercial lines for the company. To carry out this research work, the collaboration of the International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) and the Barcelona School of Civil Engineering (UPC) has been counted on. The research has been included in the context of the “AIR-BRIDGE” project (www.cimne.com/airbridge/presentation/index_en.html), which is part of the PROVA’T 2012-13 call of the CERCA Institution, subsidized with European FEDER funds. The thesis proposes the development, construction and experimental validation of a new concept of inflatable beam bridge for temporary use to be able to quickly restore road communications in the event of natural disasters or other emergency situations. Despite the promising characteristics of the concept, this type of inflatable beams has not yet reached the market and is limited to academic uses and research groups far from the productive industrial sector. In recent years, different scale prototypes of PVH-LMP have been built at Buildair, which have been used to demonstrate the industrial and commercial viability of this new concept. One of the successful public demonstrations was held during the first meeting of the Research Centres of Catalonia (CERCA) at the end of April 2014 on the esplanade of the Mercat del Born (Barcelona).

Uno de los campos de investigación en curso es la aplicación de estructuras inflables como solución para estructuras temporales que requieren un transporte y despliegue rápidos. Esto se debe a su alta capacidad de resistencia, debido a su reducido peso y volumen, lo que las hace ideales en estas situaciones. Sin embargo, hasta hace poco no existía una solución para las vigas inflables debido a su limitada capacidad para absorber fuerzas de flexión, por lo que se limitaban a usos menores como refugios o pabellones inflables. Actualmente existe un concepto denominado "Tensairity", basado en la combinación sinérgica de elementos rígidos de compresión, un elemento de tracción y un tubo inflable para integrar todo el sistema. En la siguiente figura, el sistema se puede comparar con una celosía tradicional.

Inflatable Structures; Temporary Structures; Rapid Transport; Rapid Deployment; High Resistance; Reduced Weight; Reduced Volume; Bending Forces; Shelters; Inflatable Pavilions; Tensairity; Rigid Compression Elements; Tensile Element; Inflatable Tube; Lattice System