Structure Analysis of Inflatable Membrane Structure with Initial Shape

In this paper, we describe the structure analysis by the finite element method of the gas-inflatable membrane structure with initial shape before pressure loading, on the assumption of the structure analysis of the gas-inflatable membrane reflector. The initial shape is assumed to be a paraboloid of revolution or similar shape. In the finite element formulation, to consider the influence of the initial shape, the strain based on the extensional strain is introduced. The experiment is also conducted to compare with the numerical calculation result. The agreement of the experiment result and the numerical result shows that our finite element formulation is appropriate.