A continuum model for the tensegrity Maxwell chain

A recent study has presented a Maxwell mass–spring model for a chain formed by two different types of tensegrity prisms alternating with lumped masses. Such a model shows tensegrity theta prisms arranged in parallel with minimal regular prisms acting as resonant substructures. It features a tunable frequency bandgap response, due to the possibility of adjusting the width of the bandgap regions by playing with internal resonance effects in addition to mass and spring contrasts. This paper expands such research by presenting a continuum modeling of the tensegrity Maxwell chain, which is useful to conduct analytic studies and to develop finite element models of the plane wave dynamics of the investigated system. In correspondence to the high wave-length limit, i.e., in the low wave number regime, it is shown that the dispersion relations of the discrete and continuum models provide similar results. Analytic solutions to the wave dynamics of physical systems are presented, which validate the predictions of the bandgap response offered by the dispersion relation of the continuum model.