Tensegrity spline beam and grid shell structures

This paper considers a class of tensegrity structures with continuous tubular compression booms forming curved splines, which may be deployed from straight by prestressing a cable bracing system. A free-form arch structure for the support of prestressed membranes is reviewed and the concepts are extended to a two-way spanning system for double layer grid shell structures. A numerical analysis based on the Dynamic Relaxation (DR) method is developed which caters specifically for the form-finding and load analysis of this type of structure; a particular feature of the analysis is that bending components are treated in a finite difference form with three degrees of freedom per node rather than six. This simplifies the treatment of sliding collar nodes which may be used along the continuous compression booms of deployable systems.