The wrinkling of thin membranes : part 2 : numerical analysis

Using a weighted residual method, a geometrically and physically nonlinear membrane element is derived, which can be used in the analysis of anisotropic membranes. What is special about the formulation is that the wrinkling behavior of the element is incorporated. If wrinkling occurs the stress situation in the element is determined by making use of a modified deformation tensor. A structure may have completely slack regions, leading to a singular stiffness matrix. Because of this we have chosen to use a restricted step method for the iterative solution procedure. A simple shear test is used to compare numerical and analytical results which show good agreement