Corner Wrinkling of a Square Membrane Due to Symmetric Mechanical Loads

Blandino, Joseph R.; Johnston, John D.; Dharamsi, Urmil K.

doi:10.2514/2.3870

Cited by 64 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Recently, Blandino et al [23] performed a laboratory test on a 500 mm square, flat membrane made of a KAPTON® Type HN film. The material properties, membrane dimensions, and loading are shown in Figure 3.…”

Section: Square Thin-film Membrane Subjected To Symmetric Corner Tensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonlinear Shell Modeling of Thin Membranes with Emphasis on Structural Wrinkling

Tessler¹,

Sleight²,

Wang³

2003

44th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference

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Thin solar sail membranes of very large span are being envisioned for near-term space missions. One major design issue that is inherent to these very flexible structures is the formation of wrinkling patterns. Structural wrinkles may deteriorate a solar sail's performance and, in certain cases, structural integrity. In this paper, a geometrically nonlinear, updated Lagrangian shell formulation is employed using the ABAQUS finite element code to simulate the formation of wrinkled deformations in thin-film membranes. The restrictive assumptions of true membranes, i.e. Tension Field theory (TF), are not invoked. Two effective modeling strategies are introduced to facilitate convergent solutions of wrinkled equilibrium states. Several numerical studies are carried out, and the results are compared with recent experimental data. Good agreement is observed between the numerical simulations and experimental data. Introduction The exploitation of solar energy for the purpose of near-term space exploration presents a viable and attractive possibility in the minds of NASA scientists and engineers. The specific propulsion technology is called solar sails. Very large, ultra-low-mass, thinpolymer film (gossamer) structures are now being designed and tested for a wide variety of space exploration missions. The difficulties associated with conducting tests in a weightless environment place greater emphasis on the reliance on computational methods. Other gossamer structures that possess similar structural characteristics include inflatable space antennas, sun shields, and radars. A concise overview of gossamer structures and related technologies can be found, for example, in [1].A solar sail can gain momentum from incidence of sunlight photons at its surface. Since the momentum carried by an individual photon is very small, the solar sail must have a large surface area and a low mass, so that sufficient acceleration can be generated. Also, a solar sail requires a highly reflective surface that has minimal wrinkling and billowing under operational conditions. In the presence of significant wrinkling and billowing, the solar sail may lose efficiency, as compared to a flat sail, due to the oblique incidence of photons. The billowing problem may be overcome by applying sufficient tension to the sail membrane. Higher tensile stresses, however, are commonly accompanied by greater amplitude and longer structural wrinkles.A thin-film solar sail is a classical two-dimensional structure, with a thickness that is much smaller than its lateral dimensions. Since the bending stiffness is negligibly small compared to its membrane stiffness, the load-carrying capability using thin, low-modulus films is predominantly due to tensile membrane stresses. One key response phenomenon intrinsic to this class of structures is structural wrinkling. Structural wrinkles are local post-buckling patterns that are manifested by geometrically large transverse deformations whose magnitudes are much larger than the membrane thickness. Their formation is...

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Section: Square Thin-film Membrane Subjected To Symmetric Corner Tensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonlinear Shell Modeling of Thin Membranes with Emphasis on Structural Wrinkling

Tessler¹,

Sleight²,

Wang³

2003

44th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Recent computational studies [2,3] This modeling philosophy was previously demonstrated on the square thin-film membrane subjected to symmetric corner tensile loads [2]. In the finite element model, the corners of the square membrane were truncated, as shown in Figure 2 The contour plots depicting the wrinkling displacement patterns for the square thin-film membrane in the experiment [1] and the geometrically nonlinear shell analysis [2] are shown in …”

Section: Square Thin-film Membrane Under Corner Tensile Loadsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, Blandino et al [1] carried out a laboratory test on a 500 mm square, flat membrane A suitable analytical model, that is statically equivalent to the experimental one, would result in the loading by four corner tensile forces acting in the opposite directions along the two diagonals of the square membrane. In a computational shell model, specifying the applied concentrated forces at the corner nodes does not lead to a wrinkled equilibrium state, even with the inclusion of the geometric imperfections.…”

Section: Square Thin-film Membrane Under Corner Tensile Loadsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geometrically Nonlinear Shell Analysis of Wrinkled Thin-Film Membranes with Stress Concentrations

Tessler

Sleight

2007

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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Geometrically nonlinear shell finite element analysis has recently been applied to solar-sail membrane problems in order to model the out-of-plane deformations due to structural wrinkling.Whereas certain problems lend themselves to achieving converged nonlinear solutions that compare favorably with experimental observations, solutions to tensioned membranes exhibiting high stress concentrations have been difficult to obtain even with the best nonlinear finite element codes and advanced shell element technology. In this paper, two numerical studies are presented that pave the way to improving the modeling of this class of nonlinear problems. The studies address the issues of mesh refinement and stress-concentration alleviation, and the effects of these modeling strategies on the ability to attain converged nonlinear deformations due to wrinkling. The numerical studies demonstrate that excessive mesh refinement in the regions of stress concentration may be disadvantageous to achieving wrinkled equilibrium states, causing the nonlinear solution to lock in the membrane response mode, while totally discarding the very low-energy bending response that is necessary to cause wrinkling deformation patterns.

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“…There also exist, however, rather low compressive stresses that tend to wrinkle the material, producing geometrically large out-of-plane displacements. Because the structural wrinkles in solar sails may detrimentally affect such principal parameters as stability, maneuverability, and reflectivity, the issue of reproducing these low-energy deformation modes computationally has generated considerable research activities in recent years (e.g., refer to [1][2] and references therein).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward Effective Shell Modeling of Wrinkled Thin-Film Membranes Exhibiting Stress Concentrations

Tessler¹,

Sleight²

2004

45th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics &Amp;amp; Materials Conference

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Geometrically nonlinear shell finite element analysis has recently been applied to solarsail membrane problems in order to model the out-of-plane deformations due to structural wrinkling. Whereas certain problems lend themselves to achieving converged nonlinear solutions that compare favorably with experimental observations, solutions to tensioned membranes exhibiting high stress concentrations have been difficult to obtain even with the best nonlinear finite element codes and advanced shell element technology. In this paper, two numerical studies are presented that pave the way to improving the modeling of this class of nonlinear problems. The studies address the issues of mesh refinement and stressconcentration alleviation, and the effects of these modeling strategies on the ability to attain converged nonlinear deformations due to wrinkling. The numerical studies demonstrate that excessive mesh refinement in the regions of stress concentration may be disadvantageous to achieving wrinkled equilibrium states, causing the nonlinear solution to lock in the membrane response mode, while totally discarding the very low-energy bending response that is necessary to cause wrinkling deformation patterns. An element-level, strain-energy density criterion is suggested for facilitating automated, adaptive mesh refinements specifically aimed at the modeling of thin-film membranes undergoing wrinkling deformations.

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Corner Wrinkling of a Square Membrane Due to Symmetric Mechanical Loads

Cited by 64 publications

References 9 publications

Nonlinear Shell Modeling of Thin Membranes with Emphasis on Structural Wrinkling

Nonlinear Shell Modeling of Thin Membranes with Emphasis on Structural Wrinkling

Geometrically Nonlinear Shell Analysis of Wrinkled Thin-Film Membranes with Stress Concentrations

Toward Effective Shell Modeling of Wrinkled Thin-Film Membranes Exhibiting Stress Concentrations

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