THE ROLE OF FABRICS IN TENSAIRITY - Eawag-Empa Library

4. CONCLUSIONS
Tensairity is a synergetic combination of an airbeam and a cable-strut structure or, in other words, of
fabrics, compressed air, cables and struts. The fabric plays an important role in Tensairity. It is
pretensioned due to the compressed air. Therefore it can transfer compressive forces from the upper
chord to the lower chord. The fabric stabilizes the chord under compression against buckling. And the
fabric has to take care of shear forces. The fabric is the key to the outstanding properties of Tensairity
such as light weight, fast and simple setup, compact transport and storage volume, interesting lighting
options, adaptiveness and so on. The fabric has a complex non-linear material behavior. Part of this
behavior is transmitted to the Tensairity structure, as can be seen by the initial response to a new load
condition of the fabric under biaxial testing and the Tensairity beam under bending load. Thus a deeper
understanding of Tensairity is strongly connected to a detailed analysis of the material properties of the
involved fabrics. Research along these lines is underway. As a matter of fact, the fabric is more than the
compartment of the compressed air. It is an important part of the interesting and rich behavior of
Tensairity structures.
REFERENCES
[1] Tensairity ® is a technology of the Swiss company Airlight Ltd developed in close collaboration with
prospective concepts ag. The research activities of prospective concepts have been recently transferred
to the Center for Synergetic Structures at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing
and Research. For further information about Tensairity see www.airlight.biz .
[2] R.H. Luchsinger, R. Crettol (2006), “Adaptable Tensairity”, F. Scheublin, A. Pronk, A. Borgard and
R. Houtman (eds.), Adaptables’06, Proceedings of the joint CIB, Tensinet and AISS international
conference on adaptability in design and construction, Eindhoven.
[3] R.H. Luchsinger, A. Pedretti, P. Steingruber, M. Pedretti (2004), “The new structural concept
Tensairity: Basic Principles”, A. Zingoni (ed.), Progress in Structural Engineering, Mechanics and
Computation, A.A. Balkema Publishers, London.
[4] R.H. Luchsinger, R. Crettol, P. Steingruber, A. Pedretti, M. Pedretti (2005), “Going strong: from
inflatable structures to Tensairity”, E. Onate and B. Kröplin (eds.), Textile composites and inflatable
structures II, CIMNE, Barcelona.
[5] R.H. Luchsinger, A. Pedretti, P. Steingruber, M. Pedretti (2004), “Light weight structures with
Tensairity”, R. Motro (ed.), Shell and Spatial Structures from Models to Realizations, Editions de
l’Espérou, Montpellier.
[6] A. Pedretti, P. Steingruber, M. Pedretti, R.H. Luchsinger (2004), “The new structural concept
Tensairity: FE-modeling and applications“, A. Zingoni (ed.), Progress in Engineering, Mechanics and
Computation, A.A. Balkema Publishers, London.
[7] Biaxial tests were made by the Laboratorium Blum, Stuttgart, Germany.
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