Determinate tensegric shells

Tensegric shells are a new type of reticulated structure: They are comprised of a net of cables and bars. There is one bar at a node, and no bar touches another and the structure comprises no continuous rigid part. The tensegric shell is stabilized by prestressing, and it can be simply assembled and disassembled repeatedly. The condition for a stable tensegric shell is formulated and the behaviour of a determinate tensegric shell under external toad is studied. The conditions for a tensegric shell with fixed geometry that does not change according to the nature of the external load are discussed. A hyperbolic paraboloid tensegric shell is studied numerically.