Geometric design of triangulated bistable scissor structures taking into account finite hub size

Pre-assembled scissor structures can be transformed from a compact bundle of elements to a fully deployed configuration, offering a considerable volume expansion. Intended geometrical incompatibilities during transformation can be introduced as a design strategy to obtain bistability, which allows instantaneously achieving some structural stability in the deployed state. Because of these incompatibilities, some specific members bend during transformation, resulting in a controlled potentially tunable snap-through behaviour. Because of the complex design process, bistable scissor structures remain rarely used in civil engineering. Geometric design methodologies were proposed in the literature to obtain a compatible geometry (i.e. with all of the beams straight) in the folded and the deployed configurations. However, most of these approaches do not consider finite hub sizes or introduce extra incompatibilities in the geometry by adding hub legs. In this contribution, deployability conditions are derived taking the finite hub size into account to make triangulated bistable scissor modules fully geometrically compatible in the folded and the deployed configuration. Keywords: Deployable structures, scissor structures, bistability, snap-through, geometric design, finite hub size, nonlinear computational mechanics

Publication year:2020

Keywords:deployable structures, scissor structures, bistability, snap-through, geometric design, finite hub size, nonlinear computational mechanics

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