Finite element analysis of membrane structures

Abstract

This report summarizes the formulation for a large displacement formulation of a membrance composed of three-node triangular elements. A formulation in terms of the deformation gradient is first constructed in terms of nodal variables. In particular, the use of the right Caunchy-Green deformation tensor is shown to lead to a particulary simple representation in terms of nodal quantities. This may then be used to construct general models for use in static and transient analyses.