Manufacturing sensitivity study of tensegrity structures using Monte Carlo simulations

Keyao Song, Fabrizio Scarpa, Mark Schenk*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The successful construction of a tensegrity structure requires not only design techniques but also a means to account for any manufacturing or assembly errors. As a tensegrity is prestressed and is often stabilised by its prestress, it requires a form-finding technique to determine the balanced configuration in the design phase; this property also makes it challenging for engineers to evaluate the effect of manufacturing imperfections on the self-equilibrated configuration. In this paper we investigate the sensitivity of tensegrity structures to manufacturing imperfections, using a stiffness-matrix-based form-finding technique in combination with the Monte Carlo simulation method to introduce manufacturing length errors. The effects at the structural level are captured, and two general relationships between the variance of the input manufacturing error and the output distribution of the member tensions, between the variance and the mean across all groups, are observed. By identifying the most sensitive member group, this work provides a design and analysis strategy when the natural length errors of members are considered for tensegrity structures.
Original languageEnglish
Article number112878
Number of pages17
JournalInternational Journal of Solids and Structures
Volume298
Early online date15 May 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jul 2024

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© 2024 The Author(s)

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