FORM-FINDING ANALYSIS FOR CABLE-REINFORCED MEMBRANE STRUCTURE BASED ON MINIMAL SURFACE

Abstract

This paper applies a discretization formulation of the finite element method using the minimal surface for membrane structures and denotes an initial shape analysis procedure for a cable-reinforced HP-type suspension membrane structure and a cable-reinforced pneumatic membrane structure as numerical analysis model. In the computation process of cable introduction, moving boundaries are set and the cable is introduced step by step to denote a stable numerical computation procedure. In addition, finite elements of the initial shape obtained assuming a time history response analysis by wind are subdivided to compute the minimal surface again. To verify the equally tension property of the initial shape obtained based on minimal surface, a stress deformation analysis using the finite element method with the coordinate assumption is performed. For the pneumatic membrane structure, an example of stress deformation analysis due to an increase in internal pressure assuming strong winds is shown. The above clarifies the validity of this numerical procedure.