Abstract
This paper presents a detailed experimental study of the formation and evolution of the wrinkle pattern that form in flat elastic and isotropic membranes under the action of in-plane tension. The experiments were carried out on a cruciform specimen stretched along two uncoupled axes using various loading paths. The wrinkled shapes of the membrane were digitized by using a full-field measurement based on the fringe analysis method. Over this experiment, several phenomena were observed: the mechanism of wrinkle division, the influence of the membrane thickness on the wrinkle pattern, and the reproducibility of a kinematic configuration of wrinkles. The main result is that non-unique wrinkle shapes have been observed over repeated experiments for nominally identical boundary conditions. The uncertainty of the experimental wrinkle shape has been explained using comparison with the results of a post-buckling finite element analysis.
Highlights
Over the past 20 years there have been a large number of new structural concepts for large spacecraft applications involving stretched membrane surfaces (Jenkins, 2001)
The membranes used in gossamer structures cannot undergo compressive stress because of their small bending stiffness
This paper presents a detailed experimental study of the formation and evolution of the wrinkle patterns that form in flat isotropic membranes
Summary
Over the past 20 years there have been a large number of new structural concepts for large spacecraft applications involving stretched membrane surfaces (Jenkins, 2001). Gossamer structures are designed for such applications as antennas, solar arrays and telescope lenses. The membranes used in gossamer structures cannot undergo compressive stress because of their small bending stiffness. The result of compressive stress is that buckling occurs leading to membrane wrinkling. This may affect the performance and the reliability of the flexible gossamer structures (as in the case of antennas or reflectors). The prediction of wrinkle patterns in membrane surfaces is one of the many current technological interests in the aerospace industry
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