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Snapping instability in prismatic tensegrities under torsion

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Abstract

Tensegrities are a class of lightweight and reticulated structures consisting of stressed strings and bars. It is shown that each prismatic tensegrity can have two self-equilibrated and stable states, leading to a snapping instability behavior under an applied torque. The predicted mechanism is experimentally validated, and can be used in areas such as advanced sensors and actuators, energy storage/adsorption equipments, and folding/unfolding devices.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Liyuan Zhang

  2. AML & CNMM, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Liyuan Zhang, Cheng Zhang & Xiqiao Feng

  3. School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 02912, USA

    Huajian Gao

Authors
  1. Liyuan Zhang
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  2. Cheng Zhang
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  3. Xiqiao Feng
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  4. Huajian Gao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiqiao Feng.

Additional information

Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11432008 and 11502016), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2015M570035), the Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program (No. 20121087991), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (No. FRF-TP-15-029A1)

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Zhang, L., Zhang, C., Feng, X. et al. Snapping instability in prismatic tensegrities under torsion. Appl. Math. Mech.-Engl. Ed. 37, 275–288 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10483-016-2040-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10483-016-2040-6

Keywords

Chinese Library Classification

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification

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