Experimental Investigation on the Vibration Attenuation of Tensegrity Prisms Integrated with Particle Dampers

Tensegrities made of tensile strings and compressed struts possess large strength-to-mass ratio values but tend to experience non-negligible vibration in dynamic environments because of poor structural damping. Here, we introduce particle dampers into a tensegrity prism to attenuate vibration, with the goal of establishing a lightweight and efficient approach of vibration suppression. To integrate the particle dampers and the tensegrity, a novel strut structure formed by assembling a solid strut and a hollow strut is devised, in which granular materials are inserted to develop a particle damper. The vibration attenuation performance of the tensegrity prism is investigated through exciter tests. According to the experimental parametric study, the influences of system parameters including excitation magnitude, the filling height of particles, particle size and the configuration of tensegrity prism on the vibration attenuation performance is analyzed. In addition, the experimental results regarding the dependence of the vibration attenuation on the system parameters are interpreted by the mechanism of collisions and frictions between particles and between particles and struts. The maximal vibration attenuation ratio of 76% can be achieved in the experiments. Thus, this research can provide insights into the design of lightweight tensegrity structures where vibration suppression is important, particularly in some dynamic environments.