Deployable Tension-Strut Structures: Structural Morphology Study and Alternative Form Creations

Abstract

This paper proposes geometric rules to describe geometry of a class of deployable structures, which is named Deployable Tension-Strut Structure (DTSS) and applies these rules to generate new forms of DTSS through a computer-based method. These geometric rules are found by observing kinematics characteristics of the proposed DTSSs. The links between geometry and kinematic characteristics of the proposed DTSSs can be interpreted as a shape grammar of DTSS. An algorithm is developed for applying this shape grammar to generate other design options of DTSSs, which involve kinematic chains of struts. Examples are used to illustrate the successful use of the algorithm to generate various new forms of DTSS. The paper shows that the kinematic conditions of DTSSs can be translated into geometric rules and these purely geometric rules can be used to generate various similar kinematic alternatives of DTSS.