An inflatable fabric beam finite element

Inflatable structures made of modern textile materials with important mechanical characteristics can be inflated at high pressure (up to several hundreds kPa). For such values of the pressure they have a strong mechanical strength. The aim of the paper is to construct a new inflatable beam finite element able to predict the behaviour of inflatable structures made of beam elements. Experiments and analytical studies on inflatable fabric beams at high pressure have shown that their compliance is the sum of the beam compliance and of the yarn compliance. This new finite element is therefore obtained by the equilibrium finite element method and is modified into a displacement finite element. The stiffness matrix takes into account the inflation pressure. Comparisons between experimental and numerical results are shown and prove the accuracy of this new finite element for solving problems of inflatable beams at high pressure. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.