Dynamic behavior of pneumatic structure with progressively increasing local deformation under wind pressure

Pneumatic structures are lightweight structures that provide internal pressure and maintain in-plane stiffness. On the other hand, the out-of-plane stiffness is low, so the membrane surface must be reinforced with cables. The reference wind speed in a Japanese design recommendation is assumed a return period of 50~1000 years and Gumbel distribution. Through allowable stress design, verifying that the pneumatic structures will not exceed their damage limit due to wind force with a return period of 50 years is necessary. Research into the local behavior of pneumatic structures in strong winds is underway. This study investigated the dynamic behavior of a pneumatic structure under constant internal pressure inflation and subjected to wind forces with a return period of 50 years discussed. The model has a planar geometry of 120 meters and is discretized by plane stress element. The membrane material is PTFE and the cable is wire ropes for structure. The wind pressure coefficients are predicted by machine learning and varies with successive deformations. After inflation with 300Pa, the wind pressure fluctuates harmonically on the positive side, whose frequency is 1 Hz. Principal stress at the apex converges 55% of the tensile strength. Windward principal stress progressively grows and reaches more than 90% of the tensile strength. It is necessary to examine whether similar results can be obtained at higher internal pressure settings and with wind pressures of different frequency components.