Nonlinear wind-induced instability of orthotropic plane membrane structures

Abstract

he nonlinear aerodynamic instability of a tensioned plane orthotropic membrane structure is theoretically investigated in this paper. The interaction governing equation of wind-structure coupling is established by the Von Karman\'s large amplitude theory and the D\'Alembert\'s principle. The aerodynamic force is determined by the potential flow theory of fluid mechanics and the thin airfoil theory of aerodynamics. Then the interaction governing equation is transformed into a second order nonlinear differential equation with constant coefficients by the Bubnov-Galerkin method. The critical wind velocity is obtained by judging the stability of the second order nonlinear differential equation. From the analysis of examples, we can conclude that it\'s of great significance to consider the orthotropy and geometrical nonlinearity to prevent the aerodynamic instability of plane membrane structures; we should comprehensively consider the effects of various factors on the design of plane membrane structures; and the formula of critical wind velocity obtained in this paper provides a more accurate theoretical solution for the aerodynamic stability of the plane membrane structures than the previous studies.