Topological design of compression structures with prestressing tendons

Abstract

Compression structures with prestressing tendons are a new type of structures which combines a compression structure with a discrete number of tension members treated as ties. They are an intermediate case between tension-only structures and compression-only structures. As tension and compression members exist, the force density matrix can be singular or ill-conditioned. Consequently, the solution of the equilibrium equation is not as simple as in the case of tension-only and compression-only structures. In this catalogue, nine compression structures with prestressing tendons are presented to show the potential of this new type of structures