Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
On the Design Process of Tensile Structures
R. Wagner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .1
Systems for Lightweight Structure Design: the State-of-the-Art and Current
Developments
E. Moncrieff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Recent Developments in the Analytical Design of Textile Membranes
L. Gru¨ndig, D. Stro¨bel and P. Singer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Finite Element Analysis of Membrane Structures
R.L. Taylor, E. On˜ate and P.A. Ubach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Applications of a Rotation-Free Triangular Element for Finite Strain Analysis
of Thin Shells and Membranes
F. Flores and E. On˜ate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
FE Analysis of Membrane Systems Including Wrinkling and Coupling
R. Rossi, V. Renato and E. On˜ate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Wrinkles in Square Membranes
Y.W. Wong and S. Pellegrino. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109
FEM for Prestressed Saint Venant-Kirchhoff Hyperelastic Membranes
A. J. Gil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Equilibrium Consistent Anisotropic Stress Fields in Membrane Design
K.-U. Bletzinger, R. Wu¨chner and F. Daoud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Efficient Finite Element Modelling and Simulation of Gas and Fluid Supported
Membrane and Shell Structures
T. Rumpel, K. Schweizerhof and M. Hasler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Widespan Membrane Roof Structures: Design Assisted by Experimental
Analysis
M. Majowiecki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173
Fabric Membranes Cutting Pattern
B. Maurin and R. Motro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Inflated Membrane Structures on the Ground in the Air and in Space –
A Classification
B. Kro¨plin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Post-Tensioned Modular Inflated Structures
R. Tarczewski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Experiences in the Design Analysis and Construction of Low Pressure
Inflatable Structures
J. Marcipar, E. On˜ate and J. Miquel Canet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Recent Advances in the Rigidization of Gossamer Structures
B. Defoort, V. Peypoudat, M.C. Bernasconi, K. Chuda and
X. Coqueret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Form-Optimizing Processes in Biological Structures. Self-generating
structures in nature based on pneumatics
E. Stach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .285
Making Blobs with a Textile Mould
A.C.D. Pronk and R. Houtman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .305
PREFACE
The objective of this book is to collect state-of-the-art research and technology for design, analysis, construction and maintenance of textile and inflatable structures. Textile composites and inflatable structures have become increasingly popular for a variety of applications in – among many other fields – civil engineering, architecture and aerospace engineering. Typical examples include membrane roofs and covers, sails, inflatable buildings and pavilions, airships, inflatable furniture, airspace structures etc.
The ability to provide numerical simulations for increasingly complex membrane and inflatable structures is advancing rapidly due to both remarkable strides in computer hardware development and the improved maturity of computational procedures for nonlinear structural systems. Significant progress has been made in the formulation of finite elements methods for static and dynamic problems, complex constitutive material behaviour, coupled aero-elastic analysis etc.
The book contains 18 invited contributions written by distinguished authors who participated in the International Conference on Textile Computer and Inflated Structures held in Barcelona from June 30th to July 2nd 2003. The meeting was one of the Thematic Conferences of the European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences .
The different chapters discuss recent progress and future research directions in new textile composites for applications in membrane and inflatable structures. Approximately half of the book focuses in describing innovative numerical methods for structural analysis, such as new non linear membrane and shell finite elements. The rest of the chapters present advances in design, construction and maintenance procedures.
The content of the different chapters was sent directly by the authors and the editors cannot accept responsibility for any inaccuracies, comments and opinions contained in the text.
The editors would also like to take this opportunity to thank all authors for submitting their contributions.