In Search of Lightweight Deployable Tensegrity Columns

In civil engineering, there is an occasional need to assure an additional support for a structure due to the loss of the load carrying capacity (e.g., as a result of natural disasters or aging) or for a lightweight structure to support temporary objects (e.g., tents, big advertisement banners, temporary antenna masts). In the present study, the authors propose deployable tensegrity columns to be used in such cases. This paper is aimed at answering the question: Which tensegrity column would be the best for the specified application? Four tensegrity columns are analyzed in various deployment configurations to find the answer to this question. Computer simulations are performed in the finite element (FE) and multibody dynamics (MBD) software to provide quantitative and qualitative results. The applied methods are validated by comparing self-stress states at various steps of the analysis. The most important part of the article is the comparative table, which contains quantitative results obtained from the performed analyses, which can be used to indicate the structures that are most appropriate for certain applications. The results may also be used as a starting point for research in other fields of science like robotics or mechatronics. This paper is focused on obtaining full data for building scaled models for laboratory tests in the future.