Intent of the Project

 The study was initiated by research on the pneumatics structure. The first pneumatic structures were used in the military during the world war and then later used for exhibition spaces and covering a long span area like football field etc. Here the air is inflated in the sheet and the air takes shape in which the sheet has been cut off just like a normal balloon the process where the inflating happens is very ordinary. So the intent of the study was how the air can be used to make this process of inflating which is rather ordinary at a first-place more dynamic.

The experiment was conducted using polythene where the air was used to fold  surfaces in different angles, various strategies were explored to seal the plastic the plastic, and even  even attempted to used other possible materials. The basic idea was when the air is blown in a closed space it expands isotropically so when the air is filled in a sealed square membrane after inflating the edges of the sq would curve inside in a concave shape 

The main task was in this experiments was to figure out a method to contain the air inside the polythene the first method used was of stitching the edges which did not worked out later the polythene was  heat sealed using the the heat from the candle which help in containing the air but developed into a non-uniformed shaped due to he uncontrolled heating of the candle as  it was done manually. later the heat seal press machine was used to seal the edges but for seal some part like sealing in a certain geometry at the centre of the polythene if the heat press was to  be used directly it would seal the entire length of the press so in such case double layer of foil paper was used to cover the excessive of the press to prevent the excessive sealing

EXPERIMENT 1 

USING AIR TO FOLD THE FOLD THE PLASTIC IN AN 90 DEGREE ANGLE

METHOD

 Two rectangular pieces of polythene were taken and then was sealed along the edges except a tiny inlet for the air to flow  Later a diamond shaped seal is made at he central axis of the rectangle parallel to the short edges of the rectangle 

 the air is blown in a closed space, it expands isotropically so when the air is filled in a sealed square membrane after inflating the edges of the sq would curve inside in a concave shape but if the same square is attached by an other identical square at one edges living and inflated from both the side then at maximum inflation both the square would try to pull the same edge at which they are connected to each other and therefore to achieve a equilibrium the both the inflated parts tend to fold at the connected edge.  

The central kite shaped seal helps to regulate the angle of the fold bigger the diamond shape lesser is the angle at which the polythene folds

EXPERIMENT 2

USING AIR TO FOLD THE POLYTHENE IN DIFFERENT AXIS

METHOD

 Two rectangular pieces of polythene were taken and then was sealed along the edges except a tiny inlet for the air to flow  Later a diamond shaped seal is made at he centre where it is rotated at an angle of  45 degree along the central axis

the plastic tends to fold at the central axis but  the two vertex of the  diamond shaped seal are not at that axis the angle at which the plastic folds is much less  hence the angle obtained is much less

EXPERIMENT 4

USING VARIOUS OTHER MATERIALS TO CONDUCT THE SAME EXPERIMENTS TO  NOTICE THE BEHAVIOR OF THE AIR AS WELL AS OF THE MATERIAL REACT TO INFLATION.

since the fold does not occur at the centre and is continuous sheet along  the strength of the fold is more than the normal diamond shaped seal  Whereas in the diamond seal fold the fold occurs at the centre and as  centre part is not inflated when filled with air it becomes weaker over that central axis

SOME COMPARISON BETWEEN THE DIAMOND SEAL FOLD AND THE MOUNTAIN SEAL FOLD

Some complex geometries