Weight and Material Optimization of Scissor-hinge Structures According to the Various Span Lengths

Scissor-hinge structures are one of the most common types of deployable structures because of their basic geometric/motion principles and easy assembly details. For hundreds of years, these structures have been used in wide range of applications in architecture, and engineering as deployable roof structures, bridges, shells, furniture designs and satellite equipment. Scissor-hinge structures have different primary elements depending on the geometry of the bars and the location of the pivot point called as “polar, translational and angulated” [1]. Geometry and dimensions of these primary elements directly affect the geometry of the whole structure as well as the cross sections of the bars. This study aims to investigate the relationship between the span length, geometry of the primary units, cross section of the bars and the material for scissor-hinge structures with the help of genetic algorithms. In detail, a structural and geometric optimization is made in order to obtain the lightest geometric configuration for the given span lengths while keeping structural strength and stability by altering typology, dimensions and number of the primary units, material parameters of the problem. To achieve that multi objective genetic algorithm based optimization approach is utilized. Generative model is created in Grasshopper parametric design software. The structural performances of generated solutions are evaluated with the help of Karamba3D that is a parametric structural tool for Grasshopper. Optimization of the problem is done via multi objective genetic optimization plug-in named Octopus