Hello ME Community,
Abstract:
Tensegrity structures, consisting of isolated compression rods and continuous tension cables, have attracted significant interest due to their light weight, high efficiency, and potential for deployability and multistability. While these features make tensegrity structures promising for adaptive and reconfigurable systems, their practical use remains constrained by limitations in mechanical modeling, challenges in experimental validation, and the lack of an effective design framework.
This proposal seeks to address these challenges through an integrated investigation combining theoretical modeling, experimental validation, and optimization-based design. On the modeling side, the ultimate goal is to clarify the boundaries between simplified and refined formulations, thereby identifying when simplified models are sufficient and when refined descriptions are required, to balance accuracy and computational cost. Experimental work will focus on developing non-contact, approximately full-field measurement techniques to observe the dynamic deployment of tensegrity structures, ensuring that theoretical predictions are grounded in realistic behavior. Building on these foundations, the optimization framework will then be applied to explore the combined space of geometry and prestress, to achieve deployable and multistable designs that are lightweight, robust, and reliable.
The overall outcome will not only advance the fundamental understanding of tensegrity mechanics but also provide practical guidelines for their use in engineering applications.
You are invited to join the PhD Proposal Defense of Jingkun Gao on Friday, October 17, beginning at 10am, in the ME Conference Room (ENGR210-I).
Advisor: Weidong Zhu
Title:
Deployable and Multistable Tensegrity Structures: Modeling, Validation, and DesignTitle:
Abstract:
Tensegrity structures, consisting of isolated compression rods and continuous tension cables, have attracted significant interest due to their light weight, high efficiency, and potential for deployability and multistability. While these features make tensegrity structures promising for adaptive and reconfigurable systems, their practical use remains constrained by limitations in mechanical modeling, challenges in experimental validation, and the lack of an effective design framework.
This proposal seeks to address these challenges through an integrated investigation combining theoretical modeling, experimental validation, and optimization-based design. On the modeling side, the ultimate goal is to clarify the boundaries between simplified and refined formulations, thereby identifying when simplified models are sufficient and when refined descriptions are required, to balance accuracy and computational cost. Experimental work will focus on developing non-contact, approximately full-field measurement techniques to observe the dynamic deployment of tensegrity structures, ensuring that theoretical predictions are grounded in realistic behavior. Building on these foundations, the optimization framework will then be applied to explore the combined space of geometry and prestress, to achieve deployable and multistable designs that are lightweight, robust, and reliable.
The overall outcome will not only advance the fundamental understanding of tensegrity mechanics but also provide practical guidelines for their use in engineering applications.