Construction of a Unit Cell Tensegrity Structure

10.6567/IFToMM.14TH.WC.OS13.017

A. González；A.N. Luo；H.P. Liu

Tensegrity structure ； Unit cell ； Internal force density

Proceedings of the 14th IFToMM World Congress

14th-2（2015 / 10 / 27）

629 - 633

英文

A tensegrity structure is a special kind of system composed of three or more bars and strings, where any external load is distributed exclusively as axial forces along its members. Each individual unit is made of compressive and tensile elements, and presents tensegrity properties such as equilibrium. With only two geometric parameters (radius r and height l_0) and the number of bars p, the nodes matrix N can be generated and the model built. Following steps guide through the creation of the connectivity matrices C_S and C_B. With the aid of the software Matlab, the internal force density method is used to confirm the equilibrium of the unit cell and suggest modifications. Finally, a three-bar tensegrity structure is built to confirm the results.