A Cartesian spatial discretization method for nonlinear dynamic modeling and vibration analysis of tensegrity structures

•A new method is developed for nonlinear dynamic modeling and vibration analysis of tensegrity structures.•Unlike traditional methods, this method can successfully avoid oversimplification of structures by incorporating member internal displacements in dynamic modeling.•This method is more accurate than the Lagrangian method and the finite element analysis method, especially in a high frequency domain.•This method is applicable to both simple and complex tensegrity structures, and computationally efficient. For vibration analysis of a tensegrity structure, the development of a dynamic model is a key step. A common issue in the traditional dynamic modeling methods for vibration analysis of tensegrity structures is that structural members are oversimplified. Member internal displacements, including those in longitudinal directions for bar and cable members and those in transverse directions for cable members, were neglected. This oversimplification would inevitably prevent the dynamic model of a tensegrity structure so developed from revealing accurate responses, especially for those in the high-frequency domain. To resolve this issue, a new method called the Cartesian spatial discretization method is developed for nonlinear dynamic modeling and vibration analysis of tensegrity structures. This method can successfully incorporate member internal displacements in dynamic modeling of a tensegrity structure by defining positions of structural members as a summation of internal terms and boundary-induced terms in a global Cartesian coordinate system. The proposed method is applied to vibration analysis of a planar Snelson’s X tensegrity structure, a three-dimensional tensegrity tower, and an irregular tensegrity grid in simulation, and compared with the Lagrangian method based on generalized coordinates, the commercial finite element analysis software ANSYS and the finite element analysis method in literatures, respectively. Results show that the proposed method is accurate in predicting dynamic responses of tensegrity structures, especially for vibration analysis in the high-frequency domain. It is also demonstrated that the proposed method is applicable to both simple and complex tensegrity structures, and computationally efficient as it converges in a super-linear rate by using only a small number of internal terms of member displacements.