Inflation of Rolled Tubes

Abstract

Extensive plans are in progress for large structures in space applications, as discussed in the 2nd National Space Inflatables Workshop (1998). The consensus is that much of this will be possible only with inflatable structural elements. There are considerable challenges in the development of such devices as reliable tools. Analytical simulation can play a significant role in speeding the development and increasing the reliability. However, the analysis of an inflated tube undergoing large displacements is prohibitive for a direct calculation using thin shell theory. An evaluation of the approximate techniques in use for inflatables is given by Jenkins (1991). A comprehensive study of nonlinear shell theory is given by Libai and Simmonds (1998). However, a convenient method, both sufficiently accurate and numerically efficient, for dealing with the deployment of membranes and complex structures has not seemed to be available.