Contact info:

 

UK office:  5 Dee Rd, Talacre, CH8 9RS, UK.

E-mail:  info@sustainablescience.org

Phones:  +1 319 930 3477,  +44 1745 855 181

Skype:  sustsci

This site first appeared on-line on January 22, 1997.   Last update: September 01, 2010

 

Copyright ©   SustainableScience.org Inc.  1987-2010

LPSA residential building in N Wales, U.K.  This is one of three structures (bridge and dome shown elsewhere) that won the top small business invention award in the Design Council’s Toshiba Year of Invention competition, 1990 (left).
LPSA residential building in N Wales, U.K. This is one of three structures (bridge and dome shown elsewhere) that won the top small business invention award in the Design Council’s Toshiba Year of Invention competition, 1990 LPSA residential building in N Wales, U.K. This is one of three structures (bridge and dome shown elsewhere) that won the top small business invention award in the Design Council’s Toshiba Year of Invention competition, 1990 LPSA residential building in N Wales, U.K. This is one of three structures (bridge and dome shown elsewhere) that won the top small business invention award in the Design Council’s Toshiba Year of Invention competition, 1990 LPSA residential building in N Wales, U.K. This is one of three structures (bridge and dome shown elsewhere) that won the top small business invention award in the Design Council’s Toshiba Year of Invention competition, 1990

The LPSA technology was originally developed and patented in the UK, funded by European Union grants. The project also won a national small business invention award in 1990 (above, left).  It also received a merit award from the British Farm & Rural Buildings Centre.

 

A typical LPSA structural frame consists of three essential components: segments, connectors and a tensioning system.  Segments comprise one or more elongate members (SDT) with ends slide fitting into sockets located on the connectors.  The connectors also accommodate passages for the tensioning elements.  Tensioning generates a state of mild compression in a robust but inherently flexible structure.  Some of the important features of the technology are:

 

· Unlike conventional structures where joints are the weakest points (where failure usually occurs), LPSA joints (connectors) are more robust than members they connect.  They are also amenable to advanced and accurate analysis and performance prediction.

· Minimal processing is needed on SDT members, namely rounding along the ends to fit into connector sockets.  The growth ring structure of SDT is preserved and the need for joint testing is completely eliminated.  Full advantage is taken of the excellent mechanical properties of round SDT.

· SDT members can rotate and displace locally within their sockets.  Therefore, dynamic loads due to earthquakes, hurricanes and flooding can be absorbed and harmlessly dissipated in part as rigid-body motion (i.e. no strain).

· With no “jointing black box” as in the embedded joints, advanced methods of stress analysis, design and performance prediction, well developed in other fields of engineering science, can be adapted to SDT structures.

· With skilled processing, testing, drying and (sometimes) chemical preservative costs eliminated, major savings can be achieved with SDT as a structural material, over commercial timber, steel and concrete.

· The modular, portable components of a LPSA “kit” structure lead to major scale and cost reductions in the manufacture, transportation and assembly of building and bridge structures.