Cirque du Soleil contracted Burke Design to design and engineer prototype composite freestanding acrobatic poles, for evaluation and potential later use in their award-winning shows. We engineered the poles to be fabricated from carbon/epoxy unidirectional prepreg fabric wound around a tooling mandrel, to produce tubes designed to fit into sockets located in the stage floor. Structural calculations were performed to ensure that the poles would perform within the design (deflection and strength) requirements. Detailed construction drawings were issued to specify the pole laminates and manufacturing instructions. Following their evaluation by Cirque du Soleil’s artists, the prototype poles may be further refined prior to their production and incorporation into the spectacular stage performances.
