CONFERENCE: The effect of bending in tensegrity systems

Tensegrity modules are spatial structures composed of tensile and compression components. Tensile and compression components are assembled together in a self-equilibrated state that provides stability and stiffness to the structure. Modules can be combined to create lightweight structures with good structural efficiency. Furthermore, tensegrity structures are good candidates for adaptive and deployable systems having thus applications in various scientific and engineering fields. Research into tensegrity structures has resulted in reliable techniques for their form-finding and analysis. Although bending is not considered in these techniques, tensegrity structures often sustain bending in their elements due to dead load and imperfections. Therefore, this paper investigates the effect of bending in a tensegrity “simplex” module. Dynamic relaxation is used to analyze the module with strut and strut-beam elements. The study reveals that bending increases stresses in elements and therefore should not be neglected.

Rhode-Barbarigos, L., Adriaenssens, S. (2014). ‘Investigating the influence of bending in the structural behavior of tensegrity modules using dynamic relaxation’, The 5th International Conference on Computational Methods (ICCM2014), Cambridge, UK.