Homogenizability of Element Utilization in Adaptive Structures

A major part of the world's resource consumption, waste production and green house gas emissions is due to the construction sector. Ultra-light weight structures can be very resource efficient, but do require active elements to withstand all occurring loads. In order to use the full potential of these so-called adaptive structures, all elements should ideally be uniformly utilized for load transfer. This goal is often referred to as stress homogenization. However, we propose to instead homogenize element utilization, where the element stress is additionally weighted by the maximum allowed stress for every single element. In this paper, we present a method to quantify an adaptive structure's ability to homogenize the element utilization, for which we introduce the homogenizability Gramian and an appropriate output equation. We will place actuators for optimal homogenization of given disturbances using a greedy algorithm. Simulations are conducted for homogenization of the element utilization under an exemplary wind load for a two-dimensional truss structure. The obtained results indicate significant potential for the reduction of element stresses and nodal displacements, though the latter is not explicitly demanded.