| Summary |
A leaf-like inflatable tube structure, which consists of a vein-like inflatable tube, is investigated. Various tube patterns are generated by changing the joint positions and angles of veins. Nonlinear finite element method based on the tension field theory is applied to calculate both the deformed shapes of the tubes after inflation and the first natural frequencies of the inflated tubes The optimum design is searched as the model which has the highest first natural frequency. The experimental models of the initial and optimum designs are made to verify the reliability of the numerical results.
|