The Most Challenging Fabric Structure Installaion to Withstand the Harsh Conditions of Antarctica by Fabric Structures-USA LLC.,

What do you do when your work environment is located in one of the world’s most hostile environments? Well if you are Lockheed Martin and your job site is Antarctica...

Lake Worth, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/12/2013 -- What do you do when your work environment is located in one of the world’s most hostile environments? Well if you are Lockheed Martin and your job-site is Antarctica you turn to Fabric Structures-USA. In 2012 Lockheed Martin’s US Antarctic Program came to Fabric Structures-USA they were in need of equipment storage that could withstand the harsh conditions of Antarctica. Fabric Structures-USA proposed a 40’W x 40’L x 28’H Extra High Quonset fabric structure.

Ken Stanley, the general manager of Fabric Structures-USA LLC., explains, “We proposed an Extra Height Quonset style Fabric Structure because of the shape of the arch. A Quonset style structure is half a circle, which means half of the width is the height. With this kind of rise it really makes it hard for much snow to stay atop of the structure. The high winds sometimes experienced in Antarctica can be looked at as a blessing or a curse in that much of the cold dry snow will be blown off the roof structure but that in and of itself creates yet another problem that must be overcome…High winds. The structure we ended up selling to Lockheed Martin is rated at 130MPH and carries a 60PSF (pounds per square foot) snow load. That is quite impressive really. Many structure companies when they have to provide such a heavy snow load they will require heat to help melt any accumulated snow but our frame is actually designed to handle the loads without the heat.” Ken says, “We felt very strongly that it was important to be able to provide The US Antarctic Program with a structure that would survive, even if there were a catastrophic event where there would be no heat”.

How do you actually build a structure that can handle these extremes? First of all Fabric Structures-USA uses a truss design that is far superior to virtually in other structure company in the world in that their truss design is what is known as a 4-chord Web Truss. We asked Ken what that means, “Most of the structure companies out here use a truss design that is known as a Bi-Beam Truss, which means there is a single chord element at the top of the truss and a single chord element at the bottom of the truss. These trusses are fine when you are in normal conditions but when you look take a critical look at the design what you will find is a Bi-Beam Truss is very good at taking downward load but when you introduce a lateral load, i.e. Wind, the Truss tends to want to fold on itself. With a 4-Chord truss instead of a single Chord element you have 2 upper chords and 2 lower chords sandwiching the web members of the truss. This design provides you with more than double the lateral load of a Bi-Beam truss.”

We asked Ken if there were any other special considerations that had to be taken into account. He began by saying. “Antarctica is an extremely cold environment, as you know. The fabrics most often used in the fabric structure industry will not handle these extreme temperatures. To overcome this obstacle we turned to the Seaman’s Corporation out of Ohio. We worked with them many years ago on a project for at the North Pole. They have a 28 ounce per square yard fabric which is more than double the weight of many of the fabric used by our competitors but that isn’t the only reason this fabric was selected. This particular fabric is called 28-oz LTA (Low Temperature Arctic) and it has a cold crack rating of -67 degrees Fahrenheit. Most other fabrics that are used in this industry don’t even come close to that kind of cold crack rating.”

As if designing a structure that meets the above requirements weren’t enough, Lockheed Martin had one more requirement. They wanted to design a system that would incorporate a passive solar heat system. “Solar heat gain is not new and it is something you can expect from any of our structures that are covered in a Translucent material but Lockheed Martin wanted more”, says Ken, adding, “Lockheed had their own ideas on how to accomplish this task. They asked us to install Clear vinyl panels or windows, if you will that are covered on the inside by black material. The nearly 24 hour periods of sunlight during Antarctica’s summer’s means there is plenty of sun available…If you capture it. The black fabric behind the clear panels will absorb the suns heat and radiate it onto the structure”. While the performance of this system has not been fully evaluated Lockheed Martin has high hopes this system will work very well and they are actually planning many more units once testing is complete.

No matter what you need to protect from the elements, no matter where or how severe your environment Fabric Structures-USA is on the forefront of tensioned fabric industry and they exceed where many others fail. Give Fabric Structures a call at 800-424-5609 or visit their website at http://www.FabricStruictures-USA.com. Their experts will guide you every step of the way.

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