In many engineering applications (emergency shelters, exhibition and recreational structures...), structures need to be easily moveable, or assembled at high speed on unprepared sites. For this purpose, preassembled deployable scissor structures, which consist of beam elements connected by hinges, are highly effective: besides being transportable, they have the advantage of speed and ease of erection and dismantling, while offering a huge volume expansion. Intended geometric incompatibilities between the members can be introduced as a design strategy, to instantaneously achieve a structural stability that can be sufficient for small loads after deployment. In so-called bistable scissor structures, these incompatibilities result in compression and bending of some specific members that are under compression with a controlled snap-through behaviour. Despite the advantages bistable scissor structures have to offer, few have successfully been realized because of the complexity they add in the design process.
The main goal of this research is to obtain better performing bistable scissor structures by identifying and manipulating their most critical parameters. The expected outcomes are structural designs in which the material is efficiently used and in which deployment remains possible with sufficient safety. An additional use of the findings issued from the planned numerical modelling is to provide engineers with general guidelines on how to design such structures.
