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Star Dome Diarywritten by Rene K. Mueller, Copyright (c) 2006, last updated Thu, May 17, 2007 Diary17. 10. 2006: PostponedSince I'm moving to a new place with my yurt, see my Yurt Diary, I have to postpone further developments on the dome, and continue as soon as possible - either having a working yurt (without thermal insulation) or otherwise a facility to work on the dome. 10. 9. 2006: 1/2 Bamboo Split: FailedI made two bows composed by three 3.05m 1/2 bamboo splits, when I began to bend the two bows they started to split at the narrow ends of each part, and splitted 2 to 3 times. In other words 1/2 splits are not suitable as guessed. Conclusion: at least 1/4 or 1/6 are suitable, this implies larger and more expensive bamboo poles. 26. 8. 2006: Bamboo AgainI checked again the bamboo option, I can use large diameter bamboo (e.g. 10cm), split 4 to 6 times as the original StarDome Building Instructions suggests, or use smaller ones and split only once and risk the bending will increase probability of having splits split again lengthwise due the surface tension when I bend the bamboo split. Here some calculation examples (regarding length and pricing), 17 x 10m bows (170m total):
I will summarize the results in the first page of this diary. As found out later, the 1/2 splits are not suitable, that's why these options are not longer an option. 21. 8. 2006: Further ResearchI started to contact various companies who manufacture synthetic pipes: Jansen (Switzerland), 2006/8/21: the head engineer told me during an extensive phone call, that he could not recommend me any material for the usage I described (10m in length, and bent to form 6.4m half bow), and suggested to combine two materials, such as PE with extended UV resistance, plus strength of another material, e.g. bamboo. He also suggested a mix of carbonfiber or fiberglass supported plastic. Yet, the problem of mix of PE or PP with bamboo is that a micro-climate with humidity within the synthetic pipe with bamboo, which could open another challenging issue.
Durolaminat (Switzerland): no feedback so far Geberit (Switzerland): I approached them a few weeks ago already, but they don't sell direct so I had to find a reseller and reviewed the PE 32mm pipe, which was too soft, but for sake of completion: 5m PE 32mm CHF 17.55, for 170m: CHF 603 per dome 30. 6. 2006: Construction DetailsDrawing some of the details about how to make the pipe part junctions (4 pipe parts making one bow). As well detail drawing on how the roof bows connect the base bows, either with a tie or another fixation. The holes in the roof bow as well in the base bow/pipe, together with an angle allows any bow to be used at any position for the Star Dome. 13. 6. 2006: Researching MaterialSo far I researched following materials:Polyethylen (PE): black 32mm pipe, 5m long the pipe, and bends nicely, not too stiff, not too weak, costs CHF 17.80 (CHF 3.55/m), € 11 or US$ 14 per 5m pipe, whereas I need 34 pipes (17 bows a 10m) Unfortunatly I haven't found any white colored pipes in PE, which I try to find since I saw that heat radiation of the sun passes through semi-transparent layers and those pipe will get get very warm, if not hot when they are black. Another option is the paint them, which I also have to check. So, the cost of skeleton with PE pipe is about CHF 610 (€ 381, US$ 488) Content:
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