Design, Analysis and Self Stress Setting of a Lightweight Deployable Tensegrity Modular Structure

Tensegrity systems, made of struts and cables in a self stress state, are rarely thought as realistic solutions in structural practice although they give access to inspiring lightweight, visually transparent and deployable solutions. Actually, these systems mainly suffer from an intrinsic low stiffness, which excludes them from many applications. They also rely on a self stress state, for which the design and control in place can be complex. In this paper, a tensegrity structure made of 4-bars modules and analysis procedures are presented with the purpose of addressing the common challenges and demonstrate a whole design process in the case of a simple tensegrity system. The global behavior of the structure is investigated, showing the potential benefits for simply supported beam-like structures such as footbridges in terms of static and dynamic behavior. The global stiffness of this system is then examined and design conditions are raised on the self stress state. Resistance aspects are also taken into account to propose realistic cross sections. Finally, the setting procedure is presented and simulated to demonstrate the feasibility of this kind of structure.