Mechanics of Compliant Structures
CHAPTER 5 Mechanics of compliant structures C. H. M. Jenkins1, W. W. Schur2 & G. Greshchik3 1Compliant Structures Laboratory, Mechanical Engineering Department South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, USA. 2Balloon Projects Branch Code 842, NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, USA. 3Center for Aerospace Structures, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA. Abstract Biological organisms must be structurally efficient. Hence it is not surprising that nature has embraced the compliant membrane structure as a central element in higher biological forms. This chapter discusses the unique challenges of modeling the mechanical behavior of compliant membrane structures. In particular, we focus on several special characteristics, such as large deformation, lack of bending rigidity, material nonlinearity, and computational schemes. 1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation Biological organisms must be structurally efficient. They have benefited from millions of years of evolution to achieve, for example, high load carrying capacity per unit weight. It is not surprising then to find that compliant membrane structures play a significant role in nature, for membranes are among the most efficient of structural elements. Long ago, engineers adopted membrane structures for solutions where structural efficiency was critical. As an example, consider the working balloon. For a given balloon volume, the total lift available is fixed, implying a zero-sum trade between structure and payload. Modern high-altitude scientific balloons (Fig. 1), made of thin polymer film fractions of a millimeter thick with areal densities of a few grams per square meter, support payloads of a few tons! WIT Transactions on State of the Art in Science and Eng ineering, Vol 20, © 2005 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1755-8336 (on-line) doi:10.2495/978-1-85312-941-4/05 86 Compliant Structures in Nature and Engineering Figure 1: Preparing to launch a high-altitude scientific balloon in Antarctica (courtesy NASA).
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