AUTHOR=De Tommasi Domenico , Puglisi Giuseppe , Trentadue Francesco 

TITLE=Elastic Response of an Optimal Tensegrity-Type Metamaterial

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Materials

VOLUME=Volume 6 - 2019

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/materials/articles/10.3389/fmats.2019.00024

DOI=10.3389/fmats.2019.00024

ISSN=2296-8016

ABSTRACT=We analyze the optimization problem for metamaterials constituted by periodic patterns of tensegrity cells. Specifically we optimize compressed slabs constituted by tensegrity cells whose sections on the middle plane are equilateral triangles, squares or regular hexagons. Interestingly, we obtain a power law dependence of the density of the slab on the design applied stress, with invariant geometrical properties of the constituent cell. This result supports previous results regarding length scale invariance properties.
Another very attracting property of the studied slabs is a very small tangential stiffness compared with its normal stiffness. This property is particularly interesting in the perspective of the design of innovative isolation  devices with extreme properties.