Computational assessment of the deployment of bistable scissor structures

Abstract

Preassembled scissor structures are transportable and can be transformed rapidly while offering a huge volume expansion. Intended geometrical incompatibilities between the members during transformation can be introduced as a design strategy to obtain bistability, which allows instantaneously achieving some structural stability in the deployed state. In such bistable scissor structures, these incompatibilities result in the bending of some specific members that are under compression with a controlled snap-through behavior. This contribution investigates the nonlinear structural behavior of bistable scissor structures during transformation using finite element models. Attempts to model the complete transformation cycle of bistable scissor structures remain scarce, partially because the underlying phenomena and modeling concepts are complex. The main goal of this contribution is to propose a 3D nonlinear structural model for the simulation of the deployment of bistable scissor structures including geometrical imperfections.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe