To: bobnowbspam@lycos.com
Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2001 10:42:40 -0800
Subject: Re: tensegrity....
hi bob
i will be out of town until the 20th.
when i get back to the studio i will forward you the xyz configs for a simple albiet large piece i recently did for ken. this should be quite interesting, as we have a complete model with real loads allocated to each tension member.
one thing that particularly peaks my interest is how you develop your baseline of pretension, in past this has been quite a nebulous task. when taking into consideration the mass of the individual compression objects this pretension level becomes quite important. without the proper levels of pretension in the system, the issues of dynamic loading really come into play. if too little tension exists, the system as a whole exhibits to much movement. if too much tension exists we can too easily surpass our working load levels for the individual tension elements. needless to say, it is a structural system that possesses great merits if these herdles can be overcome.
talk soon
stu
pinwheel