This book collects 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 book contains 18 invited contributions written by distinguished authors who participated in the International Conference on Textile Composites 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 (ECCOMAS). The different chapters discuss recent progress and future research directions in membrane and inflatable structures built with new textile composite materials. Approximately half of the book focuses on describing innovative numerical methods for structural analysis of such structures, such as new nonlinear membrane and shell finite elements. The rest of the chapters present advances in design, construction and maintenance procedures.
Author(s): Eugenio Onate, B. Kroplin
Edition: 1
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 329
Table of Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 8
On the Design Process of Tensile Structures......Page 9
Systems for Lightweight Structure Design: the State-of-the-Art and Current Developments......Page 25
Recent Developments in the Analytical Design of Textile Membranes......Page 37
Finite Element Analysis of Membrane Structures......Page 54
Applications of a Rotation-Free Triangular Element for Finite Strain Analysis of Thin Shells and Membranes......Page 76
FE Analysis of Membrane Systems Including Wrinkling and Coupling......Page 96
Wrinkles in Square Membranes......Page 116
FEM for Prestressed Saint Venant-Kirchhoff Hyperelastic Membranes......Page 130
Equilibrium Consistent Anisotropic Stress Fields in Membrane Design......Page 150
Efficient Finite Element Modelling and Simulation of Gas and Fluid Supported Membrane and Shell Structures......Page 159
Widespan Membrane Roof Structures: Design Assisted by Experimental Analysis......Page 179
Fabric Membranes Cutting Pattern......Page 201
Inflated Membrane Structures on the Ground in the Air and in Space - A Classification......Page 219
Post-Tensioned Modular Inflated Structures......Page 227
Experiences in the Design Analysis and Construction of Low Pressure Inflatable Structures......Page 246
Recent Advances in the Rigidization of Gossamer Structures......Page 263
Form-Optimizing Processes in Biological Structures. Self-generating structures in nature based on pneumatics......Page 288
Making Blobs with a Textile Mould......Page 307
