Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Wrinkling Behaviors of Inflated Membrane Airship Structures

In this paper, the wrinkling behavior of an inflated cantilever beam is presented. An analytical solution for the load-bearing capacity of an inflated beam is proposed to predict the ultimate wrinkling force and critical wrinkling force of the inflated beam, and an iterative membrane properties method is used to simulate the wrinkling of membrane structures. The load-bearing capacities of an inflated beam, numerically simulated based on these two methods, are compared with experimental results. Good agreement between wrinkling using UMAT-modified M3D4 elements based on the IMP method and experiments was obtained. The effect of wrinkling on the stress distribution of the airship envelope under internal pressure is also explored based on a practice airship.