Yarn Tensile Experiments and Numerical Simulations Based on the Decomposition of Stratospheric Airship Envelopes
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 31, Issue 3
Abstract
As a cost-effective high-altitude platform, stratospheric airships have attracted widespread research interest. A number of studies focused on the mechanical performance of the airship envelope, which is the key system in the construction of the whole airship structure. However, few researchers have addressed the strength correlation between the stratospheric airship envelope material and its base fabric yarns. This study uses microphotography to observe the weave geometry of a particular envelope material and conducts a decomposition process to obtain intact yarns. Tensile tests are performed on both the yarn and envelope. Stress-strain curves are drawn based on the test data, and the discreteness of the specimen is found to be noteworthy. A novel finite-element method model is proposed according to the plain weave structure and the tensile parameters of the yarn and is found to properly simulate the uniaxial tensile behavior of the envelope. Future work may focus on an extensive application of the model for fields such as biaxial tensile performance.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51478264, 51278299, and 51608320) and the Key Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology (Grant No. 2016YFB1200200). Xiuhua Chen gave assistance in the microphotograph process, Daxu Zhang offered valuable suggestions on the methods selection, and Shizan. He took part in conducting the experiments and performed the preliminary data analysis. The authors acknowledge their help and thank them as well as others who will remain unmentioned.
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Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 31 • Issue 3 • May 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 24, 2017
Accepted: Oct 2, 2017
Published online: Jan 30, 2018
Published in print: May 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jun 30, 2018
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