Thin-Walled Structures

Nonlinear dynamic analysis of wrinkled membrane structure

--Manuscript Draft--

Manuscript Number: TWST-D-21-01918

Article Type: Research Paper

Keywords: membrane structure; Wrinkling; Vibration; Nonlinear dynamics

Manuscript Region of Origin: China

Abstract: In this paper, the nonlinear dynamics of a wrinkled square membrane structure with
corner loads is studied elaborately. First, the wrinkling configurations of the membrane
under different loading conditions are studied based on the stability theory. Next,
modal analysis is performed to investigate the influence of wrinkling on the linear
dynamic properties. Then, the nonlinear dynamics of the structure is analyzed
considering the effects of wrinkling and geometric nonlinearity. Analysis results show
that wrinkling will impact the dynamics of the membrane structure significantly for
asymmetrical tension loading cases, wrinkling will interact with the large-amplitude
vibration during dynamic process.

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Highlights

Highlights

1. The wrinkling configurations of membrane structure under different loading

conditions are studied based on the stability theory;

2. The nonlinear dynamics of the structure is analyzed considering the effects of

wrinkling and geometric nonlinearity;

3. The coupling between wrinkles and vibration is investigated elaborately, and new

insight on the dynamics of wrinkled membrane is unveiled.

Manuscript File Click here to view linked References

1
2 Nonlinear dynamic analysis of wrinkled membrane
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5 structure
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9 Xiang Liu, Guoping Cai
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12 Department of Engineering Mechanics, State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, Shanghai
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15 Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China
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20 Abstract: In this paper, the nonlinear dynamics of a wrinkled square membrane structure with
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23 corner loads is studied elaborately. First, the wrinkling configurations of the membrane under
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26 different loading conditions are studied based on the stability theory. Next, modal analysis is
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performed to investigate the influence of wrinkling on the linear dynamic properties. Then, the
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31 nonlinear dynamics of the structure is analyzed considering the effects of wrinkling and geometric
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34 nonlinearity. Analysis results show that wrinkling will impact the dynamics of the membrane
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37 structure significantly for asymmetrical tension loading cases, wrinkling will interact with the
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large-amplitude vibration during dynamic process.
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42 Keywords: membrane structure; wrinkling; vibration; nonlinear dynamics
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46 1. Introduction
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50 For the advantages of light-weight, low-cost and easy-to-fold, membrane material is
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53 promising in numerous aerospace applications, including: membrane antenna [1], membrane solar
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56 sail [2] and membrane solar array [3]. Because of the low bending stiffness of the membrane,
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59  Corresponding author, Guoping Cai, Email: caigp@sjtu.edu.cn; Xiang Liu, codyxiang@sjtu.edu.cn.
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 1 membrane structure is very prone to be wrinkled [4-6]. Wrinkling is an elastic deformation of
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membrane structure responding to compressive load [7]. Wrinkles will affect the surface
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6 topology and stress distribution significantly, meanwhile it will also impact the dynamic behavior
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9 of the membrane structure [8]. The dynamic properties changing caused by wrinkles will impact
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12 mission success of space membrane structures in a number of important ways, ranging from
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degradation in performance to catastrophic structural collapse [9]. Therefore, it is of great
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17 necessary and significance to study the dynamics of the wrinkled membrane structure.
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20 The dynamic analysis of wrinkled membrane structure has been a research topic of continued
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23 interest. Up to now, there are two major approaches to study the dynamics of membrane
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structure considering wrinkles. One is based on the tension field theory [10], the other is based
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28 on the stability theory [11]. The tension field theory assume that the membrane has no bending
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31 stiffness to resist any compression and holds the ideal that the minor principal stress vertical to the
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34 wrinkle is zero [12]. Based on the tension field theory, several methods, such as: iterative
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membrane property (IMP) method [13], penalty parameter modified material (PPMM) method [14]
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39 and two-variable-parameter (2VP) method [15], have been used to study the dynamic
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42 characteristics of membrane structures. Even though the effect of stress changes in wrinkling
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45 area can be considered on membrane dynamic characteristics by using the tension field theory, an
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inevitable drawback of this theory is that the effect of out-of-plane deformation is ignored after
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50 wrinkling formation. Therefore, to study the dynamic characteristics of wrinkled membrane
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53 structure more precisely, stability theory based methods have been proposed [16]. The stability
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56 theory assume that the membrane has a small bending stiffness and its wrinkles can be regarded as
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59 the buckling deformation under compression. By using the stability theory, the detailed
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 1 out-of-plane deformation (like: wavelength and amplitude) of wrinkles can be obtained by
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post-buckling analysis. In recent years, several research works on dynamic study of wrinkled
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6 membrane structure based on the stability theory have been conducted. For example, Wang et al.
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9 [17, 18] discussed the wrinkle-influencing factors such as pre-stress, Poisson’s ratio, Young’s
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12 modulus, thickness and boundary conditions, and numerically analyzed their effects on the
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dynamic properties of a rectangular membrane under shear and a square membrane under corner
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17 loads. Wang et al. [19] studied the wrinkling of a membrane-inflated arch by using the stability
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20 theory, the effects of wrinkles on mode shapes and associated natural frequencies were analyzed.
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23 Wang et al. [20] also studied the theoretical evaluation on the natural frequencies of wrinkled
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inflated beams based on the stability theory. Li et al. [16] studied the vibration modes of a
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28 rectangular shear wrinkled membrane, results indicate that the vibration modes are strongly
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31 correlated with the wrinkling configurations. Wang et al. [21] investigated the free transverse
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34 vibration of a wrinkled annular thin film, the predicted vibration characteristics were also verified
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experimentally. Modal analysis of a wrinkled square membrane structure subjected to
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39 asymmetric tension considering the out-of-plane deformation of wrinkles is conducted in Wang et
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42 al. work [22]. However, from the literature review, it can be noticed that all the previous works
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45 on dynamic properties of the wrinkled membrane structure are only concerned with the vibration
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modes, which means all those research results are confined with linear vibration. More in-depth
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50 study and nonlinear analysis of wrinkled membrane structure dynamics are still widely opened
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53 and need to be explored.
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56 To advance the state of the art, in this paper, the nonlinear dynamic study of a wrinkled
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59 square membrane structure under corner loads is conducted. The wrinkling analysis of the
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 1 membrane structure is performed based on the stability theory, and the dynamic behavior is
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studied with the effects of wrinkles and geometric nonlinearity considered. The remaining of
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6 this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, the research object and main analysis procedures
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9 are introduced. In Section 3, wrinkling analysis of the membrane structure under different
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12 loading conditions is presented. Based on the results obtained in Section 3, modal analysis of the
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wrinkled membrane structure is performed in Section 4. In Section 5, dynamic properties of the
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17 structure are studied considering the effects of wrinkling and nonlinearity. Finally, major results
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20 and conclusions of our work are summarized in Section 6.
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24 2. Research object and analysis procedures
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28 As shown in Fig. 1, a square membrane structure with biaxial tensions is studied in this paper.
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The length of the sides of the square structure is L  2a  500mm . Four corners of the square
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33 have been trimmed off to eliminate the stress concentration, the length of the cut edge is
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36 2a  28.28mm . The membrane structure is loaded with two diagonal pairs of equal and
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39 opposite forces, T1 and T2, as shown in Fig. 1. The material properties of the membrane structure
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42 are listed in Table 1.
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 T1
1 T2 B
2 A
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10 O L=0.46m
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17 C D a=0.02m
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19 T1 T2
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21 Fig. 1. Schematics of the square membrane structure with corner loads.
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27 Table 1. Material properties of the membrane structure.
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29 Parameters Value
30 Thickness, t 1mm
31 Young’s modulus, E 60GPa
32 Poisson’s ratio,  0.3
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Density,  1800Kg/m3
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38 Taking into account the effect of out-of-plane deformation of wrinkles, shell elements have
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41 been used to model the membrane structure in our work. To capture the details of the wrinkling
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44 membrane precisely, the square membrane is discretized into 499402 S3 elements in ABAQUS.
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The flowchart shown in Fig. 2 summarize the complete simulation procedure of our study. The
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49 part in the dashed box corresponds to the wrinkling analysis.
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 Start
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Step 3 Step 4
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Define FE model Post-buckling analysis Modal analysis
4 Mesh size; Element type; *STEP, NLGEOM *STEP, NLGEOM=NO
5 Material properties; *STATIC, STABILIZE *FREQUENCY, LANCZOS
Boundary conditions
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7 Step 1 Step 5
8 Initial pre-stress condition Modify mesh density, Nonlinear dynamic analysis
*INITIAL CONDITIONS, STRESS
9 *STEP, NLGEOM
Convergence? stabilize factor *STEP, NLGEOM
* STABILIZE, FACTOR *DYNAMIC
10 *STAIC
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12 Read stiffness
Wrinkle details
13 Wrinkle configuration;
matrix, stress and Output results
wrinkle wavelength; wrinkle
14 displacement
amplitude, etc... Displacement; stress
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Step 2
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Eigenvalue buckling analysis Read stiffness
17 *STEP, NLGEOM=NO matrix, mass
End
18 *BUCKLE, LANCZOS matrix, wrinkling
configuration
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Introduction of geometric
21 imperfection
22 *IMPERFECTION
23 Wrinkling analysis
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Fig. 2. Flowchart of the nonlinear dynamic analysis of the wrinkled membrane structure.
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31 Step 1. At the initial stage of the analysis, a uniform pre-stress is applied to the membrane
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34 (*INITIAL CONDITIONS, STRESS) to stabilize it. After applying the initial pre-stress, a static,
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geometrically nonlinear step is performed (*STATIC). In this step, the tangent stiffness matrix
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39 introduced by the pre-stress will be produced.
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42 Step 2. Then the buckling modes of the pre-stressed membrane structure will be determined
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45 by an eigenvalue buckling analysis (*BUCKLE, LANCZOS). After computing the buckling
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mode-shapes, a linear combination of selected buckle modes is introduced into the structure as a
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50 geometrical imperfection to trigger the post-buckling process (*IMPERFECTION). The
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53 geometrical imperfection can be expressed as
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55 z   ai φi (1)
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i
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where φi represents the buckling mode obtained by Step 2; ai represents the magnitude of the
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 1 corresponding mode.
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Step 3. For the post-buckling analysis, a geometrically nonlinear step is carried out. Since
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6 the equilibrium path of a wrinkled membrane includes many unstable branches, each
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9 corresponding to a localized snap-through due to the formation of an additional wrinkle [6],
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12 usually the full response of the wrinkled structure needs to be solved by the arc-length solution
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method (*RIKS). In our work, the numerical singularity issue associated with the wrinkling is
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17 addressed through switching the analysis from a quasi-static process to a transient dynamic
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20 process. Thus, one would simulate the actual dynamic response of the structure as it snaps, in
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23 order to compute the first static equilibrium state after wrinkling has occurred. This idea can be
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straightforwardly implemented in ABAQUS using the *STABILIZE function. It is shown by
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28 simulations that similar results will be obtained by using arc-length solution method and the
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31 transient dynamic method.
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34 Step 4. After the wrinkling configuration of the membrane structure is calculated,
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considering the effects of stress changing and out-of-plane displacement caused by the wrinkles, a
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39 modal analysis is performed (*FREQUENCY, LANCZOS).
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42 Step 5. Then a nonlinear dynamic step (*DYNAMIC) is carried out to study the dynamics
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45 of the membrane structure under harmonic excitation with different amplitude and frequency.
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49 3. Wrinkling analysis of the membrane structure
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53 The wrinkling deformation results of the membrane structure for different tension load ratio
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55 (T1/T2=1, T1/T2=3) are studied in this Section. First, the buckling modes of membrane
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58 structure are obtained with an eigenvalue buckling analysis. The membrane is constrained in
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 1 both x and y-directions at the centre node; all the four side edges are left free; the z-translations
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and all rotational degrees of freedom of the trimmed corners are restrained. Fig. 3 shows the first
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6 four order buckling modes of the membrane structure with the tension load ratio as T1/T2=1.
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9 These figures clearly show that radial wrinkles nearby the corner will be produced under this
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12 loading condition. The first four order buckling modes of the membrane structure with the
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tension load ratio as T1/T2=3 are shown in Fig. 4. From Fig. 4, it can be seen that in this case
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17 larger wrinkles will be produced between the two more heavily loaded corners. The linear
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20 combination of the first four order buckling modes are introduced into the initial configuration of
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23 the membrane structure as imperfection.
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39 (a) (b)
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53 (c) (d)
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55 Fig. 3. The first four buckling modes of case when loading ratio is set as T1/T2=1: (a) the first
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order buckling mode; (b) the second order buckling mode; (c) the third order buckling mode; (d)
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58 the fourth order buckling mode.
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12 (a) (b)
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26 (c) (d)
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28 Fig. 4. The first four buckling modes of case when loading ratio is set as T1/T2=3: (a) the first
29 order buckling mode; (b) the second order buckling mode; (c) the third order buckling mode; (d)
30 the fourth order buckling mode.
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34 The wrinkling configurations of the structure can be obtained by the post-buckling
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simulations. Fig. 5 shows the simulation results of loading case T1=T2=20000N. Figs. 5(a)
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39 and (b) show the wrinkling configuration obtained by the transient dynamic method with the
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42 imperfection amplitude as 0.1mm and 0.5mm, respectively. From Figs. 5(a) and (b), we can see
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45 that the wrinkling configuration is “insensitive” to the initial imperfection. Fig. 5(c) shows the
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wrinkling configuration obtained by the arc-length solution method with the imperfection
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50 amplitude as 0.5mm. By comparing the results shown in Figs. 5(b) and (c), we can see that
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53 similar results will be obtained by using these two methods. The wrinkling configurations of the
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56 membrane structure under the corner loads T1=15000N and T2=5000N are shown in Fig. 6. It
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59 can be seen that a continuous large-amplitude diagonal wrinkle goes between the two more
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 1 heavily loaded corners in this case. And, this diagonal wrinkle is also “insensitive” to the initial
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imperfection introduced and the numerical method utilized.
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20 (a) (b)
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25 Fig. 5. Wrinkling configuration of the
26 membrane structure under the corner load
27 T1=T2=20000N: (a) imperfection amplitude
28 is set as 0.1mm, transient dynamic method;
29 (b) imperfection amplitude is set as 0.5mm,
30 transient dynamic method; (c) imperfection
31 amplitude is set as 0.5mm, arc-length
32 solution method.
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34 (c)
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 1
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11 (a) (b)
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16 Fig. 6. Wrinkling configuration of the
17 membrane structure under the corner load
18 T1=15000N, T2=5000N: (a) imperfection
19 amplitude is set as 0.1mm, transient dynamic
20 method; (b) imperfection amplitude is set as
21 0.5mm, transient dynamic method; (c)
22 imperfection amplitude is set as 0.5mm,
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arc-length solution method.
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25 (c)
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4. Modal analysis of the wrinkled membrane structure
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33 The first six order vibration modes of the wrinkled square membrane structure under the
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36 corner load T1=T2=20000N are shown in Fig. 7. For comparison, the vibration modes of the
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39 membrane structure without considering wrinkles are also calculated and shown in Fig. 8. It can
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42 be seen that the unwrinkled model predicts negative natural frequencies for the first-eight
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44 vibration modes, one of which is plotted in Fig. 8(a) as a zero frequency mode. These modes are
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47 caused by the negative geometric stiffness duo to the heterogeneous stress field, often called
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50 “noise modes”. For the wrinkled mode, duo to the formation of wrinkles, the negative geometric
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53 stiffness term is removed, and there is no noise mode in this case. We can also see that, modes
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55 1-5 predicted by the wrinkled model are practically identical, and have the same frequencies of
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58 modes 9-13 predicted by the unwrinkled model. Thus, it can be concluded that for the loading
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 1 case T1/T2=1 the wrinkling will not change the dynamic properties of the structure significantly,
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which will be further proved by the dynamic response analysis in the following Section.
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19 (a) Mode 1, 255.2Hz (b) Mode 2, 372.2Hz
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33 (c) Mode 3, 372.3Hz (d) Mode 4, 393.4Hz
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46 (e) Mode 5, 433.7Hz (f) Mode 2, 494.5Hz
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48 Fig. 7. The first six order vibration modes of the wrinkled model with the corner load as
49 T1=T2=20000N: (a) mode 1; (b) mode 2; (c) mode 3; (d) mode 4; (e) mode 5; (f) mode 6.
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 1
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11 (a) Mode 1-8, 0Hz (b) Mode 9, 255.9Hz
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25 (c) Mode 10, 371.2Hz (d) Mode 11, 371.2Hz
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39 (e) Mode 12, 399.6Hz (f) Mode 13, 409.9Hz
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41 Fig. 8. The first six order vibration modes of the unwrinkled model with the corner load as
42 T1=T2=20000N: (a) mode 1; (b) mode 2; (c) mode 3; (d) mode 4; (e) mode 5; (f) mode 6.
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Now, let’s consider the case that corner loads are T1=1500N, T2=5000N. Fig. 9 shows the
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50 first six order vibration modes of wrinkled model. The vibration modes obtained by the model
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53 without considering wrinkles are shown in Fig. 10. It can be seen from Fig. 10 that the low-order
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56 vibration modes obtained by the unwrinkled model are local modes. This could be due to the
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59 singularities arising from the presence of compressive stress when wrinkling effect is not
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 1 considered. From Fig. 9(a), we can also see that, for the wrinkled model, the first-order vibration
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mode is dominated by the wrinkling configuration of the structure. By comparing Figs. 9 and 10,
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6 we can observe that there is not even a single corresponding mode shape between the predictions
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9 obtained by the wrinkled model and unwrinkled model, which indicts that the wrinkles will affect
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12 the dynamics of the membrane structure considerably in this loading case.
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(a) Mode 1, 73.6Hz (b) Mode 2, 172Hz
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41 (c) Mode 3, 185.7Hz (d) Mode 4, 267.5Hz
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55 (e) Mode 5, 292.7Hz (f) Mode 6, 294Hz
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58 Fig. 9. The first six order vibration modes of the wrinkled model with the corner load as
59 T1=15000N, T2=5000N: (a) mode 1; (b) mode 2; (c) mode 3; (d) mode 4; (e) mode 5; (f) mode 6.
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 1
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28 (c) Mode 3, 147.1Hz (d) Mode 4, 157.3Hz
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42 (e) Mode 5, 182.6Hz (f) Mode 1, 213.1Hz
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Fig. 10. The first six order vibration modes of the unwrinkled model with the corner load as
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T1=15000N, T2=5000N: (a) mode 1; (b) mode 2; (c) mode 3; (d) mode 4; (e) mode 5; (f) mode 6.
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49 5. Dynamic analysis of the wrinkled membrane structure
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53 Following the modal analysis, the dynamic response analysis of the membrane structure
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55 considering the wrinkling effect and geometric nonlinearity of large-amplitude vibration is
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58 performed in this Section. Supposing there is a harmonic excitation applied at the central point
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 1 (point O shown in Fig. 1) of structure. The dynamic response of the structure is calculated by
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ABAQUS with the geometric nonlinearity considered. The loading case that T1=T2=20000N is
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6 studied first. Fig. 11 show the vibration of point O considering and not considering wrinkling
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9 effects. Here, the harmonic excitation amplitude is set as 500N, and the excitation frequency is
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12 set as 10Hz and 6Hz, respectively. It can be seen from Figs. 11(a) and (b) that the dynamic
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responses obtained by the wrinkled model and unwrinkled model are almost identical, which
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17 means the small-amplitude radial wrinkles have little influence on the dynamics of the structure in
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20 this case. Fig. 12 shows the dynamic response of the structure when the harmonic excitation
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23 frequency is 10Hz and excitation amplitude is set as different values. From the frequency
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spectrum shown in Fig. 12(b), we can see that with the increasing of excitation amplitude
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28 high-order harmonics will be produced, which is caused by the geometric nonlinearity of the
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31 large-amplitude vibration, and the nonlinear dynamics is dominated by the geometric nonlinearity
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34 of the large-amplitude vibration.
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39 -3
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40 0.01 6
41 Not considering wrinkles
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42 Considering wrinkles
2
Displacement (m)

0.005
Displacement (m)

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44 0
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46 0 -2
47 -4
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49 -0.005 -6
50 Not considering wrinkles
-8
51 (a) Considering wrinkles (b)
52 -0.01 -10
53 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
54 Time (s) Time (s)
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56 Fig. 11. Vibration of point O under the corner loads T1=T2=20000N: (a) harmonic excitation
57 amplitude is set as 500N, excitation frequency is set as 10Hz; (b) harmonic excitation
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59 amplitude is set as 500N, excitation frequency is set as 6Hz.
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 Excitation amplitude is 1000N -3 Excitation amplitude is 1000N
1 10
0.015 Excitation amplitude is 500N 3.5 Excitation amplitude is 500N
2 Excitation amplitude is 100N Excitation amplitude is 100N
3 Excitation amplitude is 15N 3 Excitation amplitude is 15N
4 0.01
Displacement (m)

Amplitude (m)
5 2.5
6 0.005
7 2
8 0
1.5
9
10 -0.005 1
11
12 -0.01 0.5
13 (a) (b)
-0.015 0
14
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 20 40 60 80 100
15
16 Time (s) Frequency (Hz)
17
18
Fig. 12. Vibration of point O considering wrinkling under harmonic excitation with
19 frequency as 10Hz: (a) Time-domain curves; (b) frequency-domain curves.
20
21
22
23
24 Next, the nonlinear dynamics of the membrane structure with the corner loads as T1=15000N,
25
26
27 T2=5000N is studied. Setting the harmonic excitation frequency as 10Hz and excitation
28
29
30 amplitude as 500N, the dynamic responses of point O obtained by the wrinkled model and
31
32 unwrinkled model are calculated and shown in Fig. 13. It can be seen clearly that the results
33
34
35 obtained the wrinkled model and unwrinkled model are very different, which indicates the
36
37
38 large-amplitude diagonal wrinkles will impact the dynamic properties of the structure significantly
39
40
41 in this case. From Fig. 13(b) we can see that there are much more high-order harmonics in the
42
43 dynamic response of the wrinkled membrane comparing to that of the unwrinkled membrane.
44
45
46 Fig. 14 shows dynamic response of the wrinkled membrane structure when the harmonic
47
48
49 excitation frequency is 10Hz and excitation amplitude is set as different values. Based on the
50
51
52 results shown in Fig. 14, the dynamic response of the wrinkled membrane structure can be
53
54 classified into three categories. When the excitation is small, as shown by the black dotted lines
55
56
57 in Fig. 14, the dynamics of the wrinkled membrane structure will behavior linearly, and the
58
59
60 frequency spectrum is dominated by the excitation frequency. When the excitation is
61
17
62
63
64
65
 1 relative-high, as shown by the blue dashed lines in Fig. 14, the dynamics of the wrinkled
2
3
membrane structure will become very complicated (almost unpredictable as a chaos) now, and
4
5
6 there are lots of complex frequency components in the frequency spectrum. Keep increasing the
7
8
9 excitation to a high value, as shown by the red solid lines in Fig. 14, now the dynamics of the
10
11
12 wrinkled membrane will become less complicated comparing to the former scenario, and the
13
14
frequency spectrum is characterized by the 1st，3rd, 5th harmonics of the excitation, which indicates
15
16
17 the dynamic response is dominated by the geometric nonlinearity of the large-amplitude vibration.
18
19
20
21
22 -3
23 0.015 Not considering wrinkles 10
7
24 Not considering wrinkles
Considering wrinkles
25 0.01 6
26 Considering wrinkles
Displacement (m)

Amplitude (m)

27 5
0.005
28
29 4
0
30 3
31
-0.005
32 2
33
-0.01
34 1
35 (a) (b)
-0.015 0
36 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 20 40 60 80 100
37 Time (s) Frequency (Hz)
38
39 Fig. 13. Vibration of point O under the corner loads T1=15000N, T2=5000N with excitation
40
frequency as 10Hz and excitation amplitude as 500N: (a) time-domain curves; (b)
41
42 frequency-domain curves.
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
18
62
63
64
65
 Excitation amplitude is 500N -3 Excitation amplitude is 500N
1 10 Excitation amplitude is 100N
0.015 Excitation amplitude is 100N 7
2 Excitation amplitude is 15N Excitation amplitude is 15N
3 6
0.01
4
Displacement (m)

5 5

Amplitude (m)
6 0.005
7 4
8 0
9 3
10 -0.005
2
11
12 -0.01 1
13 (a) (b)
14 -0.015 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 20 40 60 80 100
15
16 Time (s) Frequency (Hz)
17 Fig. 14. Vibration of point O considering wrinkling under harmonic excitation with
18 frequency as 10Hz: (a) Time-domain curves; (b) frequency-domain curves.
19
20
21
22
23
24 To further study these phenomenon, the wrinkling configuration along section B-D during the
25
26
27 vibration is analyzed. Fig. 15(a) shows the wrinkling configurations along section B-D at
28
29
30 different time instants of the low-excitation case. It can be seen that the wrinkling configuration
31
32 is unchanged during the vibration in this case. Therefore, the wrinkles will only affect the
33
34
35 dynamic properties of the structure as an initial state. When it comes to the
36
37
38 relative-high-excitation case, as shown in Fig. 15(b), the wrinkling configuration will change
39
40
41 dramatically during the vibration, and the large-amplitude diagonal wrinkle will even be flipped as
42
43 shown by the yellow dashed line. Therefore, in this case, the dynamics of the membrane is
44
45
46 characterized by the geometric nonlinearity and the wrinkling, and the changing of wrinkle
47
48
49 configuration will make the dynamic response of the membrane structure be very complicated.
50
51
52 For the high-excitation case, as shown in Fig. 15(c), even though the wrinkling configuration will
53
54 also change dramatically in this case, however because the deformation of the large-amplitude
55
56
57 vibration is much larger than the deformation caused by wrinkling-configuration-changing,
58
59
60 therefore the nonlinear dynamics of the membrane is dominated by the geometric nonlinearity of
61
19
62
63
64
65
 1 the large-amplitude vibration.
2
3
4
5
6 0s 0s
7 0.01s 0.01s
8 0.02s 0.02s
0.01 0.015
0.1s 0.1s
9
0.15s 0.15s
10 0.01 0.25s
0.25s
11 0.005 0.5s 0.5s

Amplitude (m)
Amplitude (m)

12 0.005
13
14 0 0
15
16 -0.005
17 -0.005
18 -0.01
19 (b)
(a)
20 -0.015
-0.01
21 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
22 B-D (m) B-D (m)
23
24 0s
25 0.01s
26 0.015 0.02s
27 0.1s
28 0.01 0.15s
0.25s
Fig. 15. Wrinkling configurations along
29
Amplitude (m)

30 0.005 0.5s section B-D at different time instants under

31 harmonic excitation frequency as 10Hz: (a)
32 0
excitation amplitude is 15N; (b) excitation
33
34 -0.005 amplitude is 100N; (c) excitation amplitude
35 is 500N.
36 -0.01
37 (c)
38 -0.015
39 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
40 B-D (m)
41
42
43
44
45 Fig. 16 shows the nonlinear dynamics of the membrane structure when the harmonic
46
47
48
excitation frequency is set as 6Hz and 4Hz. It can be seen that, the similar phenomenon as the
49
50 10Hz case shown in Fig. 14 can be observed. The wrinkling will only affect the initial
51
52
53 conditions when the vibration is small; for the case that the vibration is relative-large, the
54
55
56 wrinkling will interact with the vibration during the dynamic process, and the dynamics of the
57
58
59 structure show very complex features; when the vibration is large enough, the dynamics will
60
61
20
62
63
64
65
 1 become less complicated and be dominated by the geometric nonlinearity of large-amplitude
2
3
vibration. The critical excitation amplitude to trigger the wrinkling configuration changing is
4
5
6 also studied numerically herein. Fig. 17 shows the value of critical excitation amplitude varying
7
8
9 with excitation frequency. It can be seen that the critical excitation amplitude will decrease with
10
11
12 the increasing of excitation frequency.
13
14
15
16
17 Excitation amplitude is 500N -3
Excitation amplitude is 100N 10
18 0.015 7 Excitation amplitude is 500N
Excitation amplitude is 30N Excitation amplitude is 100N
19
20 0.01 6 Excitation amplitude is 30N
Displacement (m)

21 Amplitude (m) 5
22 0.005
23 4
24 0
25 3
26 -0.005
27 2
28 -0.01 1
29 (a) (b)
30 -0.015 0
31 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 20 40 60 80 100
32 Time (s) Frequency (Hz)
33
34
35 Excitation amplitude is 500N -3

36 0.015 Excitation amplitude is 100N 7 10 Excitation amplitude is 500N

Excitation amplitude is 60N Excitation amplitude is 100N
37 6 Excitation amplitude is 60N
38 0.01
Displacement (m)

39 5
Amplitude (m)

40 0.005
41 4
42 0
43 3
44 -0.005
2
45
46 -0.01 1
47 (c) (d)
48 -0.015 0
49 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 20 40 60 80 100
50 Time (s) Frequency (Hz)
51
52 Fig. 16. Vibration of point O considering wrinkling under harmonic excitation: (a) excitation
53 frequency is set as 6Hz, time-domain curves; (b) excitation frequency is set as 6Hz,
54 frequency-domain curves; (c) excitation frequency is set as 4Hz, time-domain curves; (d)
55 excitation frequency is set as 4Hz, frequency-domain curves.
56
57
58
59
60
61
21
62
63
64
65
 1 100

Critical excitation amplitude (N)

2
3
80
4
5
6 60
7
8
9 40
10
11
12 20
13
14
15 0
16 2 4 6 8 10 12
17 Excitation frequency (Hz)
18
19 Fig. 17. Critical excitation amplitude v.s. excitation frequency.
20
21
22
23 6. Conclusions
24
25
26 This paper presents an investigation of dynamic properties of a square membrane structure
27
28
29 with biaxial corner tensions considering the wrinkling and geometric nonlinear effects. The main
30
31
32 conclusions draw from the study can be summarized as follows:
33
34
35 (1) Small-amplitude radial wrinkles nearby the corners will be produced under the tension load
36
37
ratio T1/T2=1; large-amplitude diagonal wrinkles between the two more heavily loaded
38
39
40 corners will be produced under the tension load ratio T1/T2=3.
41
42
43 (2) For the loading case T1/T2=1, the wrinkling will impact the vibration modes of the structure
44
45
46 very limitedly; however, for the loading case T1/T2=3, the vibration modes will change
47
48
significantly considering the stress redistribution and initial configuration changing caused by
49
50
51 the wrinkles.
52
53
54 (3) Considering the interaction between wrinkling and vibration, the dynamic response of the
55
56
57 wrinkled membrane structure can be classified into three categories. The dynamics of the
58
59
wrinkled membrane structure will behavior linearly when the vibration is small; for the case
60
61
22
62
63
64
65
 1 that the vibration is relative-large, the wrinkling configurations will keep changing during the
2
3
vibration, and the dynamics of the structure show very complex features; when the vibration
4
5
6 is large enough, the dynamics will become less complicated and be dominated by the
7
8
9 geometric nonlinearity of large-amplitude vibration. The critical excitation amplitude to
10
11
12 trigger the wrinkle reconfiguration changing during dynamic process will decrease with the
13
14
increasing of excitation frequency.
15
16
17 The research outcomes of this paper will provide new insights on the dynamic properties of
18
19
20 wrinkled membrane and reference to the control of space membrane structures.
21
22
23
24
25
26
27 Acknowledgements
28
29
30
31 This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers
32
33 12102252, 12172214] and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [grant number
34
35
36 2021M692070].
37
38
39
40
41
42 Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
43
44
45
46
47
48 References
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