Reef test piece

Co-de-iT (design team: Alessio Erioli, Alessandro Zomparelli, Tommaso Casucci, Andrea Graziano) + NYXO (Mirko Daneluzzo), Mirco Bianchini for D-Shape

Several locations

2013
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As a necessary step further for the Reefs project, a test phase is required. In order to implement it, our team (Co-de-iT + NYXO) designed a test piece to be placed underwater for monitoring of several variables:

. mechanical resistance of the material to undercurrent erosion
. colonization process over time

The piece was designed by constraining the 3D anisotropic Reaction-Diffusion process to a few design principles:

. a tripod shape to improve stability towards undercurrents
. a gradient of cavity size to provide a heterogenous space for colonization

The final piece bounding box was constrained by maximum transportation size.

You can also navigate the piece in 3D:

On April 18th, 2013 we went to D-Shape facility in Pisa to assist in the final extraction of the piece from the sand heap resulting from the finished printing process.

The dusting team. Left to right: Filippo Nassetti, Alessandro Zomparelli, Alessio Erioli.

All photos above are by Filippo Nassetti for Co-de-iT (© all rights reserved – used under permission).

The piece was exhibited on October 3-6 2013 in Rome for Maker Faire Rome.

In 2015, the test piece was used in a collaboration with the Laboratori d’Enginyeria Marítima, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (LIM/UPC – in the persons of Lorenzo Frau, Andrea Marzeddu et al.), for a series of tests on effects of wave kinematics, resulting in this paper. See the full paper on Researchgate.

related: Reefs project