Stress Superposition Method and Mechanical Properties Analysis of Regular Polygon Membranes

Abstract

In this paper, the stress superposition method (SSM) is proposed to solve the stress distribution of regular polygon membranes. The stress-solving coefficient and the calculation formula of arbitrary point stress of regular polygon membrane are derived. The accuracy of the SSM for calculating stresses in regular polygonal membranes is verified by comparing the calculation results of the SSM with the finite element simulation results. This article is the first to propose a method to investigate the response of the arch height of the membrane curved edge to the membrane’s mechanical properties while keeping the effective area constant. It is found that the equivalent stress and the second principal stress at the midpoint of the membrane curved edge are effectively increased with the increase of the arch height of the curved edge. The second principal stress at the edge region of the membrane is relatively small, leading to the occurrence of wrinkles. When the stress at the midpoint of the curved edge is equal to that at the center of the membrane, the membrane plane attains the maximum stiffness and reduces the possibility of wrinkling at the edge.

Configuration Design and Dynamic Characteristics Analysis of Spacecraft Membrane Sunshield

“…Ropes tension each corner of the membrane to provide pre-stress in the entire membrane. The membrane arc edge design can effectively improve the mechanical properties of the membrane plane [ 32 ] and its equivalent mechanical model is shown in Figure 3 . The inscribed circle in the figure is the effective working surface of the sunshield with radius R .…”