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  • Am I right in thinking that in general anticlastic shell structures are stronger and stiffer than synclastic shells?
    I remember reading something along those lines, but can't find much to back it up?

  • I would suggest it depends on what you're building your structure from.
    A synclastic shape (e.g. a dome) would be great for materials that are strong in compression (concrete, stone etc) but would be difficult to achieve with a material that is strong in tension (e.g. fabrics) as you are relying on an outward load (applied from the same side as the centres of curvature, e.g. differential air pressure) to apply tension to your material.
    An anticlastic shape works well for materials strong in tension as you can apply large tensile preloads to the structure using a few members in compression.

    So I wrote all that, and then realised I may have missed your point. This video may be relevant, it concerns gaussian curvature and why pringle/anticlastic shapes are sometimes better than synclastic shapes.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi-TBlh44gY

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