Advanced manufacturing technologies

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The Tower of Light is a low-carbon electricity generation station in the centre of the UK city of Manchester, featuring an innovative frame and shell structure based on over a decade of research by Arup and Tonkin Liu Architects.
Content
What is the essence of the idea?
Creating a Shell Lace Structure
Advanced manufacturing technologies
What's next?
Opening in February 2022, the Tower of Light in Manchester was designed to support five chimneys of a new combined heat and power plant. Manchester City Council and main contractor Vital Energi awarded the design to architects Tonkin Liu and Arup in autumn 2017. The basic idea was to design and build a tower that would house an energy centre, supplying the surrounding buildings with low-carbon energy. The tower is also part of the Manchester Business District Heat Network, which will heat a two-kilometre area including several high-value buildings such as Manchester Town Hall and Bridgewater Hall.

The finished project surpassed the client’s desire to unite the facade and structure, celebrating the perfection of architecture and design in its design. The design of the 40-meter tower was inspired by the natural world, but it also included the idea of ​​creating a strong structure with a minimum amount of materials. And to bring this idea to life, the latest tools for digital modeling, analysis and construction were required.

What is the essence of the idea?
The central design element of the tower is its unusual shell, which acts as both the main frame and the façade. This synergy was achieved through the use of a unique “Shell Lace” technique developed by Arup and Tonkin Liu over a decade ago, inspired by the geometry of nature.

This technique helps create a lightweight and elegant structure using thin steel plates. It required a multifaceted design approach, with parametric modeling playing a central role. For example, the geometry of the corrugations and perforations of the shell was developed jointly by Tonkin Liu and Arup using digital tools, which allowed them to determine the most optimal shape of the structure.

Tower of Light
Source: David Valinsky
Ultimately, parametric modeling programs such as Rhino, Grasshopper, and Karamba were used to quickly create and analyze several shell geometry options.

In addition, they allowed parametric optimization of the facade geometry and detailed calculations of bending strength to ensure the reliability of the nine-story structure.

Thanks to such careful development of the shell-façade, it could be manufactured and assembled on site in a timely manner and with minimal costs. At the same time, the geometric parameters of the 3D model were adjusted manually, and the resulting structure was analyzed at each design iteration.

Ultimately, these principles resulted in a robust three-dimensional structure that provides maximum strength at minimum cost.

Creating a Shell Lace Structure
Arup carried out several types of analysis and testing to ensure the structural integrity of the structure and to better assess which process would result in more efficient use of resources. For example, the structural performance of the tower had to be assessed and approved using a combination of detailed finite element models (using Oasys GSA and LS-DYNA), simplified beam element models and manual calculations.

The stability of the thin shell was tested in Oasys GSA and LS-DYNA through finite element analysis, load amplification and manual calculations. In one particularly vulnerable area, a detailed nonlinear model was used to confirm the strength of the material. The dynamic performance of the tower was also assessed, and some parts were subjected to fatigue testing in a windy environment.

In addition, after analyzing the numerous ribs and angles in the turret body, there was a risk that the corrosion protection system would not be reliable enough. Therefore, stainless steel was chosen to ensure greater durability of the turret shell. Also, although the turret is painted white for aesthetic reasons, this decision allowed the use of a lower grade of stainless steel and avoided expensive surface treatment, which ultimately reduced the cost of the project without affecting the strength of the structure.

The tower's performance characteristics were taken into account in the design phone number kuwait of the structure, which consists of several modules with bolted flange connections at the top and bottom of each module. These flanges served as templates for the fabrication and installation of the façade elements on site. They also allowed for the tightest possible fit between the modules and reduced stress levels for optimum fatigue performance.


The design of the building may seem complex, but the basic principles of constructing the geometric structure of the shell-façade are quite simple.

The construction of the tower required a high level of skill from the steelwork contractor. The shell panels are made up of individual curved surfaces that are joined together to form the folded geometry of the structure. This was necessary to ensure the feasibility of the entire project, as double curved steel plates would have significantly complicated the structure and, as a result, increased its cost. Tolerances for deviations had to be kept to a minimum. For this reason, the structure was manufactured in accordance with Part 3 of the European standard EN 1090 for the manufacture of steel structures.

The project team provided a Rhino model of the tower to the contractors, who also used Rhino and Tekla to create templates for cutting each of the 432 shell panels. These were then cut to the correct curvature and joined together to form the nine shell modules that make up the tower.

What's next?
Tower of Light goes beyond the traditional design and fabrication of steel structures, using the latest in information modeling, analysis and manufacturing technologies to create an exquisite rigid surface. This building is truly an inspiration for engineers who are pioneering new ways to reduce material use and strive for a more sustainable future.