Design and analysis of a foldable protective shelter

Abstract

Deployable structures are conveniently stored and transported; it can be rapidly erected to realize its function. The engineering design and research on theories and experiments of this type of structures has been gradually developed. Due to human disasters such as wars, terrorist attacks and mass ethnical genocide, deployable shelters can be developed with protective ability and robustness to resist blasting loading and bullets. In this paper, an innovative and advanced deployable structural system is proposed, namely Foldable Protective Shelter to address the mentioned requirements. This shelter can be not only rapidly deployed and expanded, but also equipped with protection level. An engineering design concept for such a lightweight, foldable shelter to meet the military requirements is introduced and investigated. The Foldable Protective Shelter can accommodate people for protection purpose, and can be folded into a compact shape to facilitate storage and transportation. In the field, it has a design option to be added with wheels to enhance its mobility. When it comes to deployment, a series of hinges and automation mechanical system can be applied to achieve rapid deployment. Structural materials and prototyping are further investigated. In addition, the numerical modeling for this foldable protective shelter under blast loading is presented, analyzed and discussed. This Foldable Protective Shelter shows a variety of advantages for both deployable and protective purposes.