Stability of a deployable awns on a compliant steel geosystem for nonlinear soil-structure interaction

Compliant geosystems undergo shape changes through deformation provides a novel solution addressing tensile capacity while minimizing material. Deployable fins, called awns, along the circumference of the geosystem unfold from the geosystem, increasing the region of soil engaged and surface area for tensile resistance. However, tensile capacity controls the size of the piles and stability within the soil medium has not yet been studied. In traditional design, piles are often quite large to account for these forces, leading to high material and energy use. Analysis of the joint of deployable awns and their limit of deployment due to stability of the thin plate-like structures underground requires soil-structure interaction that has not yet been studied. This paper presents the fundamental analysis and discussion of the stability of the thin-shell awns along the surface of the geosystem using form-finding of the steel deployable compliant geosystem. The goal of this work is to develop an analytical model to show the deformation limitations versus increased tensile capacity of geosystems through geometrically nonlinear shape changes and compare with experimental results of small-scale prototypes.