New Concept of light, modular ans portable inflatable beam bridge

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).

One of the fields of research in progress is the application of inflatable structures as a solution in temporary structures that require rapid transport and deployment. This is due to their high resistance capacity with respect to their reduced weight and volume, which makes them ideal in these situations. However, until recently there was no solution for the case of inflatable beams due to their limited ability to absorb bending forces, and for this reason it was limited to minor uses such as shelters or inflatable pavilions. Currently there is a concept called “Tensairity”, based on the synergistic combination of rigid compression elements, a tensile element and an inflatable tube to integrate the entire system. In the following figure, the system can be compared with a traditional lattice.

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