Effects of Local Thickening on Surface Precision Control of Membrane Structures

Abstract

It is difficult to maintain the surface flatness like other materials for membrane structure under working conditions, and working performance will be greatly affected due to the extremely low bending stiffness of the membrane. In this paper, the finite element software ABAQUS is used to discuss effects of local thickening on the precision of the membrane structures from three aspects: tilt angles of the wrinkle equilibrium position, out-of-plane deformation of the structures and the wrinkle amplitude of membrane structures were analysed. Also the possible negative effects on the maximum principal stress. By comparing the local reinforcement model with the ordinary model, the accuracy of the local thickening model is far superior to the ordinary model, and little effect on distribution of maximum principal stress. The research results indicated that local thickening membrane structure can achieve better control to surface flatness at a lower cost.