Analytical Theory And Test Study Of Tensegrity Structures

Tensegrity systems are entirely new structural concept invented in 1950's. Tesegrity systems come from the natural priciple of continuous tension and isolated compression. Nowadays,studies on tensegrity systems are proceeding all over the world,and have drawn widely concern from researchers around the world.Firstly,in this paper the author introduced the history and presented condition of the studies on the tensegrity systems here and overseas and summarized the structural characteristics of these systems. From the morphology aspects of tensegrity systems,the author also analyzed and summarized the morphology configurations of some normal tensegrity polyhedron structures. And,seven formfinding methods for tensegrity systems were studied.Matrix analysis is essential for such flexible structures as cable-strut and cable-membrane structures,so are tensegrity systems. According to Maxwell principle,the mechanical characteristics could be analyzed with the SVD methods for balanced matrix.Besides,considering initial strain and stress,the paper established the nonlinear finite elment equilibrium equation based on T.L formulation. The mN-R method was provided-teolvehe-nenlina3r-equatiens4n-the-nalysis-regram designed by the author.Based on these theory and the studies of the past,the paper studied the joint of the tensegrity systems and presented a new one for these systems. Additionally,the 2m X 2m flat four-prism tensegrity system was tested. Finally,with the comparison of the test's result and theory analysis's result,they agreed well to each other. The result of test throughly verified some mechanical characteristics of tensegrity systems.In the last part,after the summary of the paper,the future research work was presentd.