Abstract

The thermoelastic behaviors of an inflatable fabric membrane structure for use in a stratospheric airship envelope are experimentally and numerically investigated. Mechanical tensile properties of the membrane material at room, high, and low temperatures are measured using an Instron® universal testing machine and an Instron® thermal chamber. To characterize the nonlinear behavior of the inflated membrane structure due to wrinkling, the bending behavior of an inflated cylindrical boom made of a fabric membrane is observed at various pressure levels. Moreover, the envelope of a stratospheric airship is numerically modeled based on the thermoelastic properties of the fabric membrane obtained from experimental data, and the wrinkled deformed shape induced by a thermal load is analyzed.

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