Stability and Optimization of Flexible Space Structures

The aim of this book is to present up-to-date methodologies in analysis and optimization of the elastic stability of lightweight statically determinate, and especially indeterminate, space structures made of flexible members which are highly stiff when loaded centrally at the nodes. These are flat and curved space pin-connected open or enveloped lattices and reticulated shells which, due to their high load-bearing capacity to weight ratios, are gaining in importance in aerospace and other fields. They are utilized, for example, as support structures for large radio-telescopes and other equipment in space, as roof structures on earth for the coverage and enclosure of large areas, and as underwater structures eveloped by a cover-shell capable of withstanding high hydrostatic pressures. Space structures of this type oare generally subjected to considerable internal axial loads in he flexible members and they fail through the loss of statical stability, usually precipitated by the intrinsic small imperfections at finite near-critical elastic deformation - and not by the breakdown of the material of which they are made, as is the case in conventional systems.Thus, the criterion in the design of such structures call for eliminating or isolating the onset of the dynamic collapse thereby increasing their safe stability limit. Standard finite element methods, as they are employed by most users today, are totally inadequate for such analyses since they do not account for the choice of the branching paths in the loading process of the structure nor for the existence of the relevant collapse modes. These aspects are novel and they are presented here.