ABSTRACT
Interest in light-weight structural design in engineering has been gaining momentum over the past decade, with a focus on new materials, sustainable and innovative design, and low life-cycle energy. Lightweight and adaptive/compliant structures at infrastructure-scale can undergo small shape-changes for improved performance under time-varying loads such as wind. An example of an adaptive system is a tensegrity structure, composed of bars and cables that are held in a state of self-stress. Aluminum is a lightweight material that can easily be formed for bar elements of a large-scale structure. A canopy structure would be an ideal test bed for building a civil infrastructure scale aluminum tensegrity structure. This paper presents work assessing performance of a lightweight and compliant tensegrity structure as a bicycle parking canopy. Currently, there is only a sheltered bicycle parking at Chem Life Sciences on the University of Illinois campus with another canopy planned near Flagg Hall.
