Bestagons
Project undertaken in course year 2022-23 with Mawa Modular
Project Goal
Enhance modular housing for refugees in Jordan, developing modular roof design for each housing unit. Specifically, to develop a modular, six-panel roof while readying it for manufacturing and testing that the design meets the needs of Syrian refugees in Jordan.
Project Motivation
There are over 6.8 million Syrian refugees in Jordan, having been displaced from their homes due to the Syrian civil war. The average time living in these refugee camps is now over 17 years, yet the families live in tents that function for 6 mos to 5 years.
Mawa Modular is an organization developing modular housing for these refugee camps with longer life spans that provide stability an ddignity for the residents. And important feature of these housings is the roof structure that needs to be easily assembled, low cost and interfaces with other modules during building expansion.
Background
There are multiple organizations developing solutions for these refugee camps, but they are either too expensive, too difficult to assemble, or don't last long enough. Their typical lifespans range from 1 to 5 years.
Mawa Modular's approach is using hexagonal modules as the living space, which requires the roofing to need to connect to adjacent modules as well as the one upon which it is mounted.
High Priority Requirements
Installation of the roof shall be done by hand
Roof design shall accommodate connected homes
Roof shall be sealed against significant precipitation
Roof shall withstand snow loads up to 10 kg/sq meter, and wind loads up to 18 m/s.
The roof shall support insulation to maintain internal temperature of 15 - 30 C
Roof must cost less than $1500
Roof shall support up to three solar panels (23 kg/panel)
Ethical Considerations
Understanding the perspectives of the refugees
Structures shall not appear "permanent" as that can imply a permanence to the living situation for the refugees
Cultural compatibility of the design with the refugees native culture
Balancing cost vs improvements to conditions and quality of life
Solution
We developed a roof design consisting of 6 triangular shaped panels that bolt together. Each panel is made up of structural and thermal components, and provides a 14-degree pitch angle. The panels and connections are strong enough to easily allow for one panel to be removed and replaced without disturbing the remaining five roof panels. The roof can be assembled by hand with just two wrenches.
Full system
Schematic showing the full system design, along with associated costs of the components.
System Prototype
Half-scale finished prototype.
Pitch angle
FEA studies assessing the max stress of the roof depending on the pitch angle. From these analyses, in conjunction with deflection analyses, a 14-degree angle was determined to be optimal.
Stress of support beam
With the 14-degree angle, this study assessed the stress in the roof support beams. Applying the load of 417 kg, equivalent to the load applied by snow, roof itself, solar panels, an adult, and a factor of safety of 2. With that load applied, the beam underwent a stress of 62 MPa, well below the the yield strength of steel, meaning the material will be strong enough.
Thermal test setup
Thermal tests were conducted to assess the insulative properties of three materials: Aluminum (left), Glass-reinforced plastic (middle) and pink foam (right). Each of these had the internal air temperature brought to a starting temperature, then the system was removed into a lower temperature environment and time to cool was measured.
Thermal results
Internal temperature vs time is plotted here. From this, GRP and Pink Foam perform similarly to each other, both better than Aluminum
Roof Assembly
This half-scale prototype was built by 2 team members by hand and with hand tools, in 25 minutes.
Other work conducted
Roof panel deflection testing
Thermal box time testing to 10 hours
Student team
Jordan Trip
The Enara and Bestagons teams visited Jordan in December 2022, to meet with members of Mawa Modular, UNHCR, Oxfam and Maani to learn more about the lives of the refugees, and the manufacturing process for their proposed solutions. And to have some fun along the way!
Future Work
Build and test full scale prototypes
Seam design for weatherproofing
Development of an assembly guide