DINOSAUR BIOTENSEGRITY

How Dinosaurs Were Able to Move in Normal Gravity, Maybe

Jul 22, 2024

WOULD BIOTENSEGRITY EXPLAIN LARGE DINOSAURS?

I don’t know if this is the answer, but some tensegrity experts seem to think so. And I don’t understand it well enough to dismiss it, so I’ll submit what I’ve found so far. Reviewing early Thunderbolts.info forum posts, I happened to see a post by Junglelord, who discussed Tensegrity, in which he stated that tensegrity is what made it possible for large dinosaurs to get so large and to reach their heads so high. … So I did a little digging into tensegrity … and it IS interesting, at least. Here’s what Junglelord said way back then.

JUNGLELORD'S THREAD ON TENSEGRITY,

Recovered: Tensegrity Structures in Biology
Post by junglelord » Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:54 pm
https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=44
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 2:38 pm Post subject: Tensegrity Structures in Biology

Its important to note that the common misconception of dinosaurs collapsing under their own weight is due to incorrect structural parameters being used to consider their relationship and effectiveness against gravity. The structural model used is the one commonly taught in medical texts, beams and levers and fulcrums. Thats really sad as beams and levers and fulcrums will never work for your bicep and a 100 pd dumbbell let alone a dinosaur. The dinosaur can stand up all by itself with no extra help from any other model, then to introduce Tensegrity Engineering instead of Beams, Levers and Fulcrums. Tensegrity is the brainchild of Buckminster Fuller. It stands for Tensional Integration.
http://www.bfi.org/
... Biological systems have always been modeled like the post-and-beam construction of a skyscraper, where a building must be rigid enough to withstand a heavy wind or any weight that cantilevers off its vertical structure. In comparing our bodies to rigid structures, standard post and beam Newtonian biomechanics have been used. This system of describing how our body functions have been adequate, but only to a point. According to a strict interpretation of Newtonian biomechanics, the human spine would buckle with less than the weight of the head on top of it; vertebral bodies would crush under the leverage of a fly rod held in the hand; and with each heartbeat arteries would lengthen enough to crowd the brain out of the skull.
Tensegrity refers to a system that stabilizes itself mechanically, because of the way in which tensional and compressive forces are distributed and balanced within the structure. Tensegrity structures transmit loads through tension and compression only. A giraffe with its long neck can bring its neck back up after drinking water only by the use of the tension and compression within its tissues. According to present-day biomechanics, it would require a large T1 spinous form, which a cable would attach to its occiput. Tensegrity is the only answer to these structural engineering problems that nature has to face.
Once viewed as a Tensegrity Structure, where the Fascia (connective tissue) is the Continual Tensional Component and the Bones are the Discontinuous Compression Component, the model is perfect and quite efficient. Voila, you have just completed your first Tensegrity class and learned the ability to make huge structures both biological and man made.

VIDEO: Tensegrity Explained youtube.com/watch?v=0onncd0_0-o&t=337s
8 Incredible Structures Around the World That Use Tensegrity to Defy Gravity https://mymodernmet.com/tensegrity-architecture/

Needle Tower https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/tensegrity-structure-architecture-5.jpg

Biotensegrity: How did the dinosaurs handle the pressure of gravity

https://fasciaguide.com/fascia-guide/biotensegrity/

https://fasciaguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/001-Fascia-Guide-Content-Biotensegrity-Dinosaur-1536x864.jpg
https://fasciaguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/006-Fascia-Guide-Content-Biotensegrity-Needle-tower-1536x864.jpg

Biotensegrity – how does it work?

In a biotensegrity system, compression members flow without touching each other in a sea of balanced tension members. When deformed by an outside force the strain is distributed over the whole area – and not only the local place being deformed. In simple terms, it is a system where hard parts, like bones, and soft parts, like threads of collagen (connective tissue) work together to adsorb, distribute and release force and tension. The skeleton is not, as previously thought, the hanger on which everything depends, for instance. The skeleton is the numb brace that keeps apart from the fascia layers and stabilizes the connective tissue structures, like Needle Tower in the picture above. But the body is not as static as the tower in the picture. This is because the body wires, the Fascia, are not two, five or ten in number, but many, many more, some stretched, and some are lax, and they tense and relax at every movement. You could describe it as the skeleton floating freely in the Fascia. However, if the soft tissue is crooked, as a result the skeleton will be bent. If we work to restore and maintain delicate parts, muscles, and connective tissue, we help {the} skeleton float freely inside complex structures.

OVERVIEW OF TENSEGRITY– I: BASIC STRUCTURES

http://www.engineeringmechanics.cz/pdf/21_5_355.pdf

2.1. Characteristics of tensegrities

Characteristics of tensegrities can be summarized as follows:
a) They have a higher load-bearing capacity with similar weight.
b) They are light weight in comparison to other structures with similar resistance.
c) They don’t need to be anchored or have to lean any surface as they don’t depend on their weight or gravity. They are stabilized in any position by equilibrium of compressive forces in struts with tensional forces in prestressed cables. Prestrain in the cables can be transformed into prestress only if the structure is statically indeterminate.
d) They are enantiomorphic i.e. exist as right and left-handed mirror pairs [13].
e) Elementary tensegrity modules can be used (such as masts, grids, ropes, rings etc.) to make more complex tensegrity structures.
f) Higher the pre-stress, stiffer the structure would be, i.e. its load bearing capacity increases with the increasing pre-stress [14]. The degree of tension of the pre-stressed components is directly proportional to the amount of space they occupy [15].
g) In a tensegrity structure the compressive members are short and discontinuous, hence they do not undergo buckling easily and no torque isgeneratedinthem[1].
h) The resilience depends on the structure assembly and material used.
i) They work synergically i.e. their behaviour cannot be predicted by considering the behaviour of any of their components separately.
j) They are sensitive to vibrations under dynamic loading. Slight change in load causes
the stress to redistribute in the whole structure within no time and thus, they have the
ability to respond as a whole.
k) Kenner [16] introduced a term ‘Elastic Multiplication’ for the tensegrity structures. It is a property of tensegrity structure which depends on the distance between two struts. If two struts are separated by a certain distance the elongation of tendons (tensile members) attached to them is much less compared to this distance.
l) The deformation response of entire tensegrity structure to load is non-linear as its stiffness increases rapidly with increasing load, like at a suspension bridge [16].
m) The tensegrities are commonly modelled with frictionless joints, and the self-weight of cables and struts is neglected.

2.2. Advantages of tensegrity over conventional (continuous) structures

a) As the load is distributed in {the} whole structure there are no critical points of weakness [16].
b) They don’t suffer any kind of torsion and buckling due to space arrangement and {the} short length of compression members [1].
c) Forces are transferred naturally and consequently, the members position themselves precisely by aligning with the lines of forces transmitted in the shortest path to withstand the induced stress.
d) They are able to vibrate and transfer loads very rapidly and hence, absorb shocks and seismic vibrations, which makes them applicable as sensors or actuators [10,11].
e) They can be extended endlessly through adding elementary structures.
f) Construction of structures using tensegrity principle makes it highly resilient and, at the same time, very economical.

2.3. Disadvantages of tensegrity over conventional (continuous) structures

a) If the structure becomes too large, it faces a problem of bar congestion (i.e. the struts start running into or touching each other) [17].
b) They show relatively high deflections and low material efficiency, as compared to with conventional continuous structures [17].
c) Fabrication complexity is a major barrier in developing floating compression structures [5].
d) Adequate design tools are not available for their design, software. ‘Tensegrite 2000’ (developed by R. Motro et al.) is the most advanced tool available to design tensegrity
structures.
e) At large constructions the structure cannot withstand loads higher than the critical, related to its dimensions and prestress [17].

I haven’t found any sort of math proof that tensegrity would make it possible for large dinosaurs to live in today’s gravity. And there is at least one question, even if it might make large dinosaurs viable. Why are there no longer any land animals larger than 24,000 pounds? Is there too little vegetation? Elephants require a lot of it, along with a lot of water, to survive. What about hippos? They're pretty big. Looks like the biggest is about 10,000 pounds, only half the size of the biggest elephants. They need 150 pounds of vegetation each day. Elephants need 300 pounds a day. Most dinosaurs were apparently killed off during the Great Flood of c. 3,300 BC. Most large land mammals were killed off by the Ice Age and the Younger Dryas impacts a few centuries later. Before those cataclysms, it appears that there was ideal climate everywhere on land and there was abundant vegetation for large creatures and small. So, if it is otherwise possible for land animals to get as big as the largest dinosaurs, what limits their size now may be human predation, lack of sufficient vegetation and worse climate than before the main cataclysms.

Cataclysmic Earth History

Discussion about this post