Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
(EDIT Note to self)
geodetic structures and geodesic structures are effectively the same thing (geodetic means 'of geodesy')
(Buckminster Fuller 'invented' and patented the geodesic dome postwar, 30 years after its invention and patenting in Germany)
Barnes Wallis designed 'geodesic' restraint cabling taking out the buoyancy loads to the structure on the R100 airship
(saving the wasteage of buoyancy capacity that characterised the parachute-style cabling eg Zeppelin and others)
such a pressure vessel structure will be entirely compliant in bending and so self-shape to continuous curves, hence 'geodesic'
any other structure will require bending stiffness, and so not be continuously curved without having an infinite number of parts
(so ?) he described his aircraft structures that followed the airship as geodetic
and BF should have used the term the geodetic dome, not geodesic dome
amusingly, the postwar Vickers Viking airliner was designed with geodetic structure (covered in glass fibre reinforced fabric)
then redesigned conventionally to be more saleable
the place of FoS related design ??
the booster designs whose deficiencies were uncovered by the Columbia disaster investigation were FoS compliant
as was the so conspicuously deficient design of the Millenium Bridge
(both these examples were deficient due to excessive deflection under non-excessive but time-varying loads)
FoS is necessary, but no substitute for design(er) diligence
although its concept was intended as such
Last edited by Tommy Cookers on 09 Mar 2013, 12:50, edited 3 times in total.
BW used (truly) geodesic cabling in the R100, but he called the wellington's structure geodetic. He didn't call it geodesic in the a/c because it no longer conformed to the mathematical definition of geodesic. Neat eh?
