First pentagon

We have completed the 5 triangles of Ver. 2 (see post) and here is how it looks:

So now the pentagon is complete, Mr. Vijay Kumar, the one who had the idea and initialized me visited today. The following points were discussed:

1. Why use 3″ pipe? why not use 1″ pipe as the smaller the pipe on the edges the less chances of water accumulation. Also, smaller pipes will have more structural strength in the tubes which would imply more through and strong clamping between the triangles.
2. Mr. Vijaykumar also mentioned that the strength of the dome lies not in the members but in the joints. So, this rules out using only FRP triangles for constructing a geodesic dome, we need to use the iron angles too.
3. Insulation can be added as a sheet of thermocol between the two layers of glass mat in each of the panels. We will have to make and see if it makes any difference.
4. Instead of using a ‘male’ die, we can make many female dies to have better surface finish as well as speed up the manufacturing process.
5. What about the doors and windows?

So the next plan is to use 1″ pipes and make the triangles.