FINITE ELEMENT BASED METHODOLOGY FOR DESIGN TENSEGRITY STRUCTURES
th International Congress on Project Engineering
May 2012
Tensegrity structures are characterized by a continuous flow of tension. They possess many advantages that make them particularly suited to solve many structural problems. Yet, despite the benefits, tensegrities have never reached the mainstream of structural engineering as its design process is a challenge that transcends the logic of conventional structural design. The design process is approached exclusively from methods and algorithms that require a level of sophistication and complex algebraic skills that are closer to theoretical and mathematical research than to the practical tools available to undertake structural analysis. Thus, a more pragmatic and functional perspe