Deployable tension-strut structures: Concept, structural behaviour and implementation

Abstract

This thesis is dedicated to developing a new series of deployable structures. Although deployable structures have been studied thoroughly for the recent 30 years, the commonness in medium to large span applications is limited due to low structural efficiency of existing systems. In this thesis, a series of Deployable Tension-Strut Structures is developed to resolve this limitation. Structural morphology of the proposed systems is studied to provide a basis for design creation algorithm which allows automatic creation of various forms of Deployable Tension-Strut Structures. Advanced finite element analyses are performed to investigate structural behaviour and optimum design parameters. Deployable Tension-Strut Structures are found to be comparable to comparable conventional double-layer space trusses in terms of structural efficiency. Prototyping and experimental investigations serve as a concept-prove tools which show that the concept and the detailing are viable. The success of this research is a breakthrough in structural design of deployable structures for medium to large span applications.