Flectosol – A pneumatically activable PV-functionalized façade shading element with bending motion in two directions for solar tracking

A continuously adjustable façade shading system functionalized with photovoltaics enables, besides adaptive shading, energy harvesting by solar tracking. This requires large bending motion in two directions. In this paper, the development of an appropriate façade module – FlectoSol – is presented. To achieve motion of ±80°, first time two pneumatic actuators are integrated into a GFRP-elastomer hybrid composite. To improve energy efficiency resp. air pressure consumption of actuation without impairing shading, a parametric study is performed. In detail the influencing criteria of the bending motion “overlap of the actuators” resp. “stiffness ratio of the actuator-surrounding GFRP” and their effect on the target parameters “bending angle”, “shadow width” resp. “air pressure consumption” are analyzed. It could be stated that the “stiffness ratio” only effects the air pressure consumption, but the “overlap” also effects the shadow width. The bending angle itself is, up to ±80°, only limited by the absolute laminate stiffness.