New 3-bar prismatic tensegrity units

Abstract Various methods have been presented for generating complex tensegrity structures by assembling simple units. Hence, generating new units will in turn benefit in obtaining various shapes of tensegrity structures. In this paper, we present three different new units by adding strings to the well-known 3-bar prismatic tensegrity unit. Analytical solutions are derived for their self-equilibrium analysis. Influences of structural parameters on internal forces of the members are investigated to study properties of the new tensegrity units.

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