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Design methods of rhombic tensegrity structures

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Abstract

As a special type of novel flexible structures, tensegrity holds promise for many potential applications in such fields as materials science, biomechanics, civil and aerospace engineering. Rhombic systems are an important class of tensegrity structures, in which each bar constitutes the longest diagonal of a rhombus of four strings. In this paper, we address the design methods of rhombic structures based on the idea that many tensegrity structures can be constructed by assembling one-bar elementary cells. By analyzing the properties of rhombic cells, we first develop two novel schemes, namely, direct enumeration scheme and cell-substitution scheme. In addition, a facile and efficient method is presented to integrate several rhombic systems into a larger tensegrity structure. To illustrate the applications of these methods, some novel rhombic tensegrity structures are constructed.

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Correspondence to Xi-Qiao Feng.

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The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10732050), Tsinghua University (2009THZ02122), and the National Basic Research Program of China (973) (2010CB631005).

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Feng, XQ., Li, Y., Cao, YP. et al. Design methods of rhombic tensegrity structures. Acta Mech Sin 26, 559–565 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-010-0351-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-010-0351-6

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