1998 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Fundamental Studies on the Development of Tensegrity Strutures
| Project/Area Number |
08650564
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
構造工学・地震工学
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| Research Institution | Setsunan University |
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Principal Investigator |
NAMITA Yoshio Setsunan University, Department of Civil Engineering, Professor, 工学部, 教授 (30198379)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
ZUI Hiroshi Setsunan University, Department of Civil Engineering, Professor, 工学部, 教授 (30236062)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1996 – 1998
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| Keywords | tensegrity structure / cable structure / prestress / curvilinear element / shape determination |
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| Research Abstract |
When a continuously spun cable system is strutted by compressive members (links) arranged intermittently between the nodes of the cable system and each member is prestressed either by lengthening the compressive members or by shortening the cable members, then this system can be stable and has some stiffness against external loads. This is a so-called tensegrity structure.
This kind of structure is not yet practical in the field of civil engineering construction and we are aiming at finding out how this system can be applicable there in the future.
The present purpose of the research is to make a fundamental investigation as to structural analysis for establishing the practical method of design analysis in the future.
The outline of the research is as follows :
(1) The necessity of geometrically nonlinear large deformation analysis is stressed and a computer program was developed for this purpose. The program is based on the results of the authors' past research works.
(2) Various numerical case studies were conducted and nonlinear characteristics of the structure under external loads are shown in detail, especially under partial loading or non-symmetrical loading conditions. The limit of application of linear theory is thus made clear.
(3) Owing to the highly nonlinear nature of the structure, it is obvious that the shape determination analysis becomes indispensable for the practical design calculation. For this purpose we developed the method of shape determination of tensegrity structure, by exploiting the authors' past results as to the theory of cable structures.The results of shape determination analysis show the high sensitivity of tensegrity structure against shape determination calculations.
(4) The applicability, or feasibility, of this kind of structure was checked by a simple design model by using versatile numerical results.
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