Wawe propagation in periodic tensegrity structural systems

Periodic structure is a type of periodic medium. Their main characteristics are defined by their unit cell, which is the cell that by repeating it, the lattice is constructed. The main advantage of such structure is that the wave propagation in it can be investigated by using the application of Floquet-Bloch theorem and therefore investigating only a single unit cell. This feature highly reduces the computational cost. In this work a two-dimensional lattice is built using a tensegrity structural unit cell. A tensegrity structure is consist of tension and compression components arranged in a discontinuous system. The dispersion curve is plotted along the edges of IBZ to understand the effect of pre-tension and pre-compression on the band gaps in two cases of a lattice made of only tension components, i.e. cables or compression components, i.e. bars, and a two-dimensional tensegrity system.