The influences of force-limiting devices and high-stiffness cables on behavior of tensegrity structures

A major deficiency of tensegrity structures which may prevent wide spread application of them in practice is their low structural efficiency in terms of initial stiffness and ultimate strength. Further, the collapse of these structures can be initiated by the buckling of a few struts, which may propagate to other elements of these systems and finally cause overall collapse. Using force-limiting devices (FLDs) and high-stiffness cables can be the primary enhancement techniques for abrupt collapse prevention as well as achieving efficient behavior to ensure the satisfactory performance of these structures exposed to extreme events. In the present study, static and dynamic collapse analyses have been conducted to evaluate the effects of FLDs and high-stiffness cables on the collapse behavior and structural efficiency of these structures. From the results, it is found that an increase of 145% in the cable elastic modulus increases the initial stiffness of tensegrity structures by approximately 135%. Using FLDs in a small selection of the most critical struts can lead to increases of up to 52% in tensegrity structures strength. Irrespective of cable stiffness, using FLDs can be more beneficial in altering the collapse mechanism of these structures.