Tensile Tensegrity Structures

Abstract

An optimized tensegrity system is designed to be efficient in tension. The system is composed of simple units each having one compressive member (bar) and four tensile members (strings). The total number of units in the network is pq where p is the number of parallel lines of units, and each line is q units long. The problem solved is to find the angle between the strings of each unit and the optimal complexity p, q so as to minimize the mass of the total system while satisfying a stiffness constraint.