Membrane Structures Formed by Low Pressure Inflatable Tubes. New Analysis Methods and Recent Constructions

  • Eugenio Oñate
  • Fernando G. Flores
  • Javier Marcipar
Chapter
Part of the Computational Methods in Applied Sciences book series (COMPUTMETHODS, volume 8)

Abstract

This paper shows applications of a recently developed thin shell element adequate for the analysis of membrane and inflatable structures. The element is a three node triangle with only translational degrees of freedom that uses the configuration of the three adjacent elements to evaluate the strains in terms of the nodal displacements only. This allows us to compute (constant) bending strains and (linear) membrane strains using a total Lagrangian formulation. Several examples, including inflation and deflation of membranes and some practical applications to the analysis, design and construction of membrane structures formed by low pressure inflatable tubes are presented.

Key words

shell elements rotation free shell triangle membrane structures inflatable structures low pressure inflatable tubes 
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Copyright information

© Springer 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  • Eugenio Oñate
    • 1
  • Fernando G. Flores
    • 1
    • 2
  • Javier Marcipar
    • 3
  1. 1.International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE)Technical University of Catalonia (UPC)BarcelonaSpain
  2. 2.National University of CórdobaCórdobaArgentina
  3. 3.BuildAir Ingeniería y Arquitectura SABarcelonaSpain

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