Deployment simulation of membrane structures based on elastic-plastic behavior parameterization of the crease

Aiming at the problem that the membrane structure is prone to creases in the process of folding and compaction, a proxy model is used to replace the creases to introduce initial defects for the folded membrane to realize the research of the deployment simulation of the membrane. Based on the finite-element method, the Z-folding and deploying process of the membrane is simulated and the elastic-plastic behavior of the crease is parameterized. The ABAQUS connector is used to replace the crease area of the membrane to simulate the characteristics of the crease and its effectiveness is verified. The deployment of Miura-ori membrane is simulated to explore the influence of force driving and constant-speed driving on the deploying process and deployment results of the membrane. In view of the self-contact phenomenon in the membrane deploying process when driven at a constant-speed, referring to the motion trajectory of the membrane loading corner of the force drive, a step-speed driving method is proposed. The research results show that using a step-speed to drive the deployment of folded membrane can reduce the curvature of the membrane surface, solve the problem of membrane self-contact, and eliminate the phenomenon of stress concentration of membrane surface. In addition, compared with other driving methods, the step-speed driving method has a significant advantage in improving the stability of the deploying process of a membrane.