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[pratik_gurlani]

Respected faculties/structural engineers,

I would like to mention that I'm a graduate student in Structural Engineering, based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
I've just completed my 2nd semester examinations and am about to start my dissertation/thesis work for my final year commencing in few weeks.
I have selected an interesting area in which I wish to pursue my work for my dissertation i.e., 'Tensegrity Structures' or 'Deployable Structures'. But I've been advised by some reputed faculties/structural engineers on SEFI that I would need some proper guide for the above purpose as the topic is still very fresh and little complex.


Being a fresh student, I don't have any contacts with reputed and experienced practicing structural engineers & Faculties to whom I can seek help.
And so I'm kindly asking you all if anyone can recommend me some names of experienced faculties in their contact, anywhere from Gujarat or any other place in India.
Also, any guidance or support on the above purpose would be highly appreciable.
That would be a great help.


Awaiting for a positive response.


Sincerely,


Pratik Gurlani
Pursuing M.E in Structural Engineering.

[Dr. N. Subramanian]

Dear Er Pratik,

If you are considering some topic for your research, you should have some interest in that or at least your guide should have some interest. The topic you are suggesting is a difficult one and I think only a few in the world have expertise (example: Prof. CHARS J. GANTES of MIT,  S. Pellegrino of Univ. of Cambridge, UK)

Hence it is better to work under the persons mentioned by me or select a topic known to your guide.

Some theses may be viewed at
http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ndtemmer/Thesis_Niels_De_Temmerman.pdf
http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~sdg/preprint/SDG%20dissertation.pdf

Best wishes
NS

[pratik_gurlani]

It is my immense pleasure to have you words on my query, sir.
I have noted down the points you advised. I will look for other interesting topics also.
Also, I have downloaded the work from the links posted by you. Will go through them very soon.

Thanking you for your guidance. I'm sure it will help me a lot.
I will get back to you if I find any further query.

Sincerely,
Pratik Gurlani.

[TYL]

Dear Pratik,

Tensegrity is a very interesting and challenging topic. Unlike a standard truss whose members can be in both tension and compression, tensegrity structure can only be either in compression or tension. This implies that members can be replaced with structural rods or cables, reducing self-weight of structure with greater structural efficiency.

The topic involve quite fair amount of mathematical modelling and understanding of nonlinear analysis. Hence, I would say you need to have quite a strong background in understanding of nonlinear and buckling analysis. A good place to start is to read more about geometric stiffness of the structure and the stability issues associated with it.