Load-Dependent Mechanical Behavior of Membrane Materials and Its Effect on the Static Behaviors of Membrane Structures
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27, Issue 11
Abstract
This paper presents a systematic series of tests and analysis on the mechanical properties of membrane structures under static loading. First, the uniaxial and biaxial tests are conducted to study the mechanical properties of coated fabrics under different loading protocols. Then, the model experiments are carried out to evaluate the mechanical behaviors of membrane structures under uniform loading. Finally, the finite-element analysis is conducted to compare with the experiment results. Results show that with proper processed, the strength of double-layer membrane can achieve 1.8 times that of single-layer membrane. The loading history has significant effects on the mechanical properties of coated fabrics. The numerical results using the elastic constants of the material without initial loading are relatively compatible with the experiment data. Besides, slightly differences are still observed between the load-deflection curves of experiment results and numerical calculation. This is because the mechanical behaviors of experiment models contain both the geometric and material nonlinearity, while the material nonlinearity is ignored in the numerical calculation.
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Acknowledgments
The research reported in this paper was supported by East China Architectural Design and Research Institute, Shanghai Taiyo Kogyo, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51308532 and 90815003), the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (2013M541756), and the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province in China (1301034B). The editors and reviewers are acknowledged for their valuable comments on the previous drafts of this paper.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27 • Issue 11 • November 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 12, 2014
Accepted: Jan 12, 2015
Published online: Feb 27, 2015
Discussion open until: Jul 27, 2015
Published in print: Nov 1, 2015
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