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Tensegrity and Spine. A new biomechanical model

Jean Claude de Mauroy, Jean François Salmochi

Clinique du Parc - Lyon (FRA)

What is tensegrity?

Created by the architect R. Buckminster Fuller in 1920, “Tensegrity” is a contraction of tensional

integrity structuring. Biological structures such as muscles and bones are made strong by the unison
of tensioned and compressed parts. The muscular-skeletal system is a synergy of muscle and bone,
the muscle provides continuous pull, the bones discontinuous push.

A strange coincidence in Washington.

How could the muscles and articular cartilage of the cervical spine of a dinosaur withstand the huge
forces that would be generated in standard Newtonian mechanics? There is no way that the soft
tissues of a diplodocus, with a ten-meter long neck and 16 freely moving neck bones could withstand
the forces generated, if the neck functioned the same as a lever.

Across the mall from the Museum of Natural History is the Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art. In the
outside rotunda stands Kenneth Snelson’s sculptures. The sculptures of tensegrity type get closer the
neck of the dinosaur.

Independent of gravity

Unlike a tower of blocks the spinet functions equally well on land, at sea, in the air or in space. The
hallmark of a pillar is stability but the hallmark of a spine is flexibility and movement.

Push & Pull

Tensegrity is the pattern that results when push and pull have a win-win relationship with each other.
The pull is continuous and the push is discontinuous. The continuous pull is balanced by the
discontinuous push producing an integrity of tension – compression.
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Push is divergent while pull is convergent. The intervertebral disc is a tensegrity structure with
nuceus pulposus under discontinuous compression and annulus under continuous tension.

60° coordination instead of 90°

Anatomical studies of the fibers of the annulus of the disc show that they are 60-degree oriented.

Triangular truss system

Trusses have flexible, even frictionless hinges with no bending moments about the joint. The support
elements are in tension and compression only. Loads applied at any point are distributed about the
truss, as tension or compression. There are no levers in a truss and the load is distributed through
the structure. A truss is fully triangulated and is inherently stable like the paravertebral muscles.

Energy Efficient

The erectores spinae muscles can only withstand loads of 2000-4000N.

During weight lifting, using free body analysis, the loads on the erectores spinae can exceed 16000N.
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Geometrical non linearity

A small modification of the length of some mm entails a very important modification of the strength
and the resistance of the system.

Invariance of scale:

The size is in theory unlimited.

A geodesic dome like in Disneyland Florida, which is a structure of tensegrity can cover in theory a
city. In newtonian mechanics, an animal of the size superior to the lion would not be viable.

The applied load is distributed in all the structure

The pressure at the level of the support is passed on to the whole structure if beams are tightened
well.
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The strength and the resistance of the whole exceed that of their components.

The soccer ball is constituted of a set of pentagons and of hexagons. The whole is much more
resistant than the envelope and the air which it contains.

In Conclusion: A new biomechanical Concept

In this system of total body modeling, the limbs are not an assemblage of rigid body segments. They
are semi-rigid non-linear, viscoelastic bony segments, interconnected by non-linear, viscoelastic
connectors, the cartilage, joint capsules and ligaments and with an integrated non-linear, viscoelastic
active motor system, the muscles and tendons and connective tissue.

de Mauroy JC, Sciascia G, de Frenza MD Nouvelle biomécanique non linéaire du rachis :

« Tensegrity ». Résonances Européennes du Rachis - Volume 13 - N° 41 - 2005, 1665-1666
Salmochi J.F. Une nouvelle approche des manipulations vertébrales par la tenségrité
Résonances Européennes du Rachis - Volume 13 - N° 41 - 2005, 1725-1726