Title: Overall stiffness evaluation and shape optimisation of a tensegric structure

Authors: Pei-Shan Chen

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture and Graduate School, Hachinohe Institute of Technology, Oobiraki 88-1, Myo, Hachinohe City, Aomori 013-8501, Japan

Abstract: The present paper promotes a shape optimisation method for maximum overall stiffness of a tensegric structure, and reports a study on the overall stiffness of a tensile structure. General reduced gradient method is adopted for the shape optimisation, and a tensegric dome is taken as an example for the numerical demonstration. The results of numerical analysis show that the nodal displacements of the example decreases from 20%-30% compared to that of the initial shape.

Keywords: shape optimisation; tensegrity; tensile structures; cable dome; minimum displacement; maximum stiffness; overall stiffness; tensegric structures; nodal displacement; reduced gradient; structural engineering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTRUCTE.2010.033481

International Journal of Structural Engineering, 2010 Vol.1 No.3/4, pp.241 - 254

Published online: 02 Jun 2010 *

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