Istrazivanja i projektovanja za privreduJournal of Applied Engineering Science

A DISCUSSION ON THE STIFFNESS MATRICES USED IN TENSEGRITY STRUCTURES


DOI: 10.5937/jaes15-14766
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 terms and conditions. 
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Volume 15 article 457 pages: 383 - 388

Luisa María Gil-Martín
University of Granada (UGR), Granada, Spain

Manuel Alejandro Fernandez-Ruiz
University of Granada (UGR), Granada, Spain

Enrique Hernandez-Montes
University of Granada (UGR), Granada, Spain

The expression stiffness matrices used in the study of tensegrity structures has inherited a formulation initially conceived for the shape finding problems of tension structures. Nevertheless stiffness and geometrical stiffness matrices are well known concepts of structural analysis and all the formulations which are used need to be congruent. In this paper, we present a formal discussion about the formulations used in several publications showing that they are not equivalent. A classic example is presented, which has been solved using several expressions available in the relevant literature, the results have been compared with a classical finite element software, showing the discrepancies.

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