5th International Congress on

Computational Mechanics and Simulation,

10-13 December 2014, India

NUMERICAL FORM-FINDING OF A TENSILE MEMBRANE

STRUCTURE USING DYNAMIC RELAXATION METHOD
SUBHRAJIT DUTTA1 and SIDDHARTHA GHOSH2
1

Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076,

India.
E-mail: subhrajit@civil.iitb.ac.in
2
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076,
India.
E-mail: sghosh@civil.iitb.ac.in

Abstract
Tension structures are increasingly in demand due to their ability to span large distances with
elegance and structural efciency. Tensile membrane structures are designed to carry the
external actions through the in-plane membrane prestress and the anticlastic surface curvature.
The determination of optimal form of the structure which satises the constraints of both
architectural and mechanical requirements is a challenge for the designer. This paper is focused
on the form-nding analysis of a tensile membrane structure using dynamic relaxation with
kinetic damping. The dynamic relaxation method is a robust numerical scheme for solving
nonlinear structural mechanics problems. A nonlinear nite element analysis with large
displacement and small strain formulation is described here and the numerical implementation
of the form-nding analysis is illustrated.
Keywords: Form-nding; dynamic relaxation; anticlastic; prestress; kinetic damping, tensile
membrane.

Introduction
For the past few decades, fabric architecture is extensively used in permanent construction of
structural components. These structures are light weight and span large distances without any
intermediate support. Due to the membrane action of stresses in these structures, they are not
designed for exure which enhances the structural efciency. From an architectural viewpoint,
the free-form structure provides a large variety of exible shapes from outside and form of the
space from inside. In the initial stage of design, the geometry of the structure is not known a
priori, and a form-nding analysis is performed to obtain an optimal shape. Form-nding is
a crucial step in the design process. For a particular combination of initial prestress and the
type and conguration of boundary supports, a unique shape of the structure is obtained. The
obtained anticlastic form coupled with the desired surface prestress resists the external wind

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c
2014
ICCMS Organisers. Published by Research Publishing. All rights reserved.
ISBN:978-981-09-1139-3 || doi:10.3850/978-981-09-1139-3 371

and snow loads that the structure is typically subjected to. Physical models developed for formnding have their drawbacks and thus robust computational tools must be developed in order
to carry out the membrane structural analysis. This paper presents a combined computational
tool involving nonlinear nite element formulation along with dynamic relation algorithm for
the analysis of tensile membrane structures.
Analysis methodology
The equilibrium shape of the membrane structure is determined based on the initial prestress
applied on the membrane. In practice, the initial prestress value is taken to be the target
prestress (d ) which is desired to be obtained after the form-nding process. Thus the problem
of form-nding can be viewed as an initial equilibrium problem for a given set of input
parameters. For a to-be-designed membrane structure, the basic parameters of interest are: (a)
surface topology, (b) surface geometry, (c) geometry boundary condition and (d) initial stress
distribution 2 . Among these parameters, the input parameters for analysis are surface topology,
geometry boundary condition and initial prestress. In this analysis, initially a trial surface
geometry of the structure is assumed, which is not in equilibrium condition. The geometry
boundary conditions are specied for the analysis and constraints are also introduced on
symmetry and anti-symmetry requirements for the simplicity of analysis. Membrane structures
exhibit high geometric nonlinearity and hence proper element formulation is necessary to
simulate the nonlinear behaviour. The 3-noded constant strain triangular (CST) element is
chosen for analysis in this case since the CST element is based on nonlinear pseudo-cable
analogy with linear strain function and small strain assumption. Many researchers have
worked on computational form-nding techniques and the most popular ones are: (a) Transient
stiffness method, (b) Force density method, and (c) Dynamic relaxation method. These formnding analysis methods for membrane structures are compared in past research studies 3 . The
dynamic relaxation method was introduced by Day (1962) 4 . Dynamic relaxation is regarded
as a robust technique for form-nding analysis. Programs developed for designing tensile
fabrics in industries uses dynamic relaxation algorithm mostly 5 . Dynamic relaxation method
along with kinetic damping is adopted for the present analysis. The CST element formulation
along with dynamic relaxation solution procedure provides a stable and efcient computation
tool for membrane analysis.
Finite element for analysis
The 3-noded plane constant strain triangular element has two translational degrees of freedom
(u, v) per node within a local coordinate system as shown in Figure 1(a). Figure 1(b) shows
the element with side L3 parallel to X-axis and having one degree of freedom per node in
the local X, Y coordinate system and the properties of the element are described with respect
to this reference coordinate. The element sides (i = 1, 2, 3) and angles (i = 1, 2, 3) are
numbered in counter-clockwise manner. The local Z coordinate direction is dened normal to
the surface. If the element side strain is denoted by i , (i = 1, 2, 3) and the orthogonal strain
as {x , y , xy } then from the assumption of small strain model, we can write,
i = x cos2 i + y sin2 i + xy cos i sin i

5th International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation

(1)

1285

The strain-displacement relationship matrix and the total stiffness matrix (elastic and geometric
stiffness) are formuated based on the small strain large displacement model. The transformation of matrices needs to be performed from the local element coordinates to the global
coordinates. Finally the nodal displacements and velocities are obtained due to the out-ofbalance force (i.e. initial prestress in the case of form-nding) using the dynamic relaxation
method.
Y

v3
u3

v1
1

3
v2
2

3
u2

L2

u1
X

Fig. 1.

L1

1
L3

(a) A general CST element; (b) Element with side L3 parallel to X-axis

Dynamic relaxation with kinetic damping

Dynamic relaxation is an explicit numerical technique for the solution of static structural
analysis problems. The method is based on the principle that any system which is subjected
to an out-of-balance force will come to rest only when the system is in equilibrium. The
structure is discretized and the mass (ctitious) of the continuum is assumed to be lumped at
nodal points. The system of lumped masses oscillates about the equilibrium position under the
inuence of out-of-balance forces. With time, under the inuence of damping, it comes to rest.
Since we are concerned about the nal equilibrium state and not the history of motion of the
system, the mass and damping parameters are controlled articially.
According to DAlemberts principle, the dynamic equilibrium of a system in motion takes
the form:
Pij = Kij + C ij + Mij ij

(2)

Pij Kij = C ij + Mij ij

(3)

Rij = Mij ij + C ij

(4)

where, the subscript ij refers to the ith node in the jth direction, j can take the values 1 to 3
corresponding to the global coordinates {x, y, z} respectively. The remaining parameters used
in the Equations 2 and 4 are dened below:
Pij is the external load vector acing at the nodal points, this term includes the surface prestress
in form-nding analysis;

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5th International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation

Kij is the total nodal stiffness of the system;

C is the viscous damping coefcient, (C = 0 for the kinetic damping case);
Mij is the ctitious nodal mass, which is obtained from nodal stiffness;
Rij is the residual nodal force;
ij is the nodal acceleration;
ij is the nodal velocity; and
ij is the nodal displacement.
Dynamic relaxation with kinetic damping is a more stable and efcient numerical scheme as
compared to the viscous damping for analysis of tension structures 9 . In this method, the
system is allowed free undamped vibration about the equilibrium position and the kinetic
energy is monitored. At the equilibrium position, the kinetic energy of the system is maximum.
Kinetic damping uses the principle of minimization of total energy (kinetic and potential) as
the system approaches to equilibrium conguration. The velocity of the system increases with
time and it is brought to zero whenever there is a peak in kinetic energy. Then, the iteration is
started again from the current conguration. With the viscous damping coefcient equal to be
zero, Equation 4 gives
Rij = Mij ij

(5)

The acceleration (ij ) can be written as the change in velocity over a time interval of t using
nite difference approximation, such that,
t+t/2
tt/2
ij
ij
(6)
t
substituting Equation 6 to 5, we get the recurrence Equation for velocities and displacements
as
t
t+t/2
tt/2
= ij
+ Rij
(7)
ij
Mij

ij =

t+1
t+1
t
ij
= ij
+ ij
t

(8)

Implementing the numerical stability of the algorithm, the time increment t is chosen such
that,

2Mij
t
(9)
Kij
Kij 2
t
2
substituting Equation 10 to 7, the nodal velocities are obtaines as
Mij

t+t/2
tt/2
ij
= ij
+ Rij

2
tKij

(10)

(11)

Finally, the current nodal displacements are given by Equation 8. During each iterative cycle,
the kinetic energy for the current conguration U t+t/2 is compared with that of the previous
conguration, denoted as

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U t+t/2 =

1 
t+t/2 2
Mij (ij
)
2 i=1 j=1

U tt/2 =

1 
tt/2 2
Mij (ij
)
2 i=1 j=1

(12)

(13)

The algorithm uses Equations 5, 11 and 8 to form an iterative loop. The iteration continues
until the out-of-balance force is less than the specied residual .
Numerical example
The membrane structures considered for this analysis exercise is a conic structure. The details
of the structure is shown in Figure 2. The following information has been provided for the
exercise:
(1) Type and conguration of the boundary supports (xed edges, point support etc.). Here,
both the square base and the head ring are xed.
(2) Fabric orientation direction: In this analysis, the principal directions (radial and circumferential) coincide with the fabric yarn (warp and ll) directions.
(3) Fabric initial prestress is applied in warp and ll directions.
(4) Modulus of elasticity, E = 600 kN/m; Poissons ratio, = 0.4 and membrane thickness =
1 mm.
(5) Initially the membrane is subjected to principal stress state only, i.e. shear stress is assumed
zero.
CST element is used to discretize the membrane structure and the surface topology is dened
for the trial shape to begin the form-nding analysis. The aim of the analysis is to nd the
equilibrium prestress in principal directions.
Results and discussion
In the present analysis, the membrane initial prestress value is taken as 4:4 kN/m (warp:ll)
in both the yarn directions. For this prestress force, the maximum principal stress (1 ) varies
in the range of 3.5 kN/m to 10 kN/m generally as shown in Figure 3 with the maximum value
of 16 kN/m. So, the equlilibrium surface obtained is not a minimal surface which has equal
stress values in all the directions. Physically, we can interprete that due to the square base
and the circular head ring. There is a variation in stresses as encountered after analysis. The
minimum principal stress for most of the boundary elements are zero while for other elements
the average value is 0.582 kN/m from Figure 4 which indicates that the membrane surface
is in the state of compression owing to probability of wrinkiling. The form-found surface
for the quarter membrane structure is shown in Figure 5. According to a recent round robin
exercise performed for analysis of membranes structure, the same structure was analysed and
the maximum principal stress (1 ) varied from 5.1 kN/m to 11.4 kN/m and the minimum from
1.6 kN/m to 3.2 kN/m for a target stress of 4kN/m in both the yarn directions. Hence, the results

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5th International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation

14 m

HEAD RING

5m

4m
Y
FIXED BASE
ELEVATION

X
14 m
PLAN

Fig. 2.

Conic structure (plan and elevation view)

obtained after the present analysis for initial stress value 4:4 kN/m are in good agreement with
those presented in the round robin exercise of membrane structures 7 . However, it should be
noted that the initial prestress values do not reach close to the target stresses in both directions.

18

16

14

1 (kN/m)

12

10

Max. principal stress (1 )

Target prestress (d = 4 kN/m)

Fig. 3.

50

100

150

200

250

Element number

300

350

400

Element maximum principal stress for initial stress value 4:4 kN/m (warp:ll)

5th International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation

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Min, principal stress (2 )

Target prestress (d = 4 kN/m)

3.5

2 (kN/m)

2.5

1.5

0.5

0.5

Fig. 4.

50

100

150

200

250

Element number

300

350

400

Element minimum principal stress for initial stress value 4:4 kN/m (warp:ll)

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
8
6
4
2
0

Fig. 5.

Conic surface after form-nding

Conclusion
In this paper, the numerical form-nding analysis of tensile membrane structures with dynamic
relaxation method is illustrated lucidly. Nonlinear geometric analysis is performed with

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5th International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation

efcient nite element formulation for realistic modeling of exible membranes. The CST
element formulation along with dynamic relaxation solution procedure provides a stable and
efcient computation tool for membrane analysis. The ease of implementation of the method
can be extensively used for computer implementation of form-nding analysis of tension
structures. The results also indicate that there is scope of optimizing the initial prestress in
order to achieve nal stresses close to the target.
References
1. Gosling, P. D., Bridgens, B. N., and Zhang, L. (2013), Adoption of a reliability approach for
membrane structure analysis, Structural Safety, 40, 3950.
2. Haber, R. B. and Abel, J. F. (1982), Initial equilibrium solution methods for cable reinforced
membranes part I - formulations, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 30(3),
263284.
3. Lewis, W. J. (2008), Computational form-nding methods for fabric structures, Proceedings of the
Institution of Civil Engineers, Engineering and Computational Mechanics, 161, 139149.
4. Day, A. S. (1965), An introduction to dynamic relaxation, The Engineer, 219, 218221.
5. Wakeeld, D. S. (1999), Engineering analysis of tension structures: Theory and practice, Engineering Structures, 21(8), 680690.
6. Veenendaal, D. and Block, P. (2012), An overview and comparison of structural form nding
methods for general networks, International Journal of Solids and Structures, 49(26), 37413753.
7. Gosling, P. D., Bridgens, B. N., Albrecht, A., Alpermann, H., Angeleri, A., Barnes, M., Bartle,
N., Canobbio, R., Dieringer, F., Gellin, S., Lewis, W. J., Mageau, N., Mahadevan, R., Marion, J. M., Marsden, P., Milligan, E., Phang, Y. P., Sahlin, K., Stimpe, B., Suire, O., and Uhlemann, J.
(2013), Analysis and design of membrane structures: Results of a round robin exercise, Engineering
Structures, 48, 313328.
8. Lewis, W. J. (2003), Tension Structures Form and Behaviour, Thomas Telford Publishing, London.
9. Veenendaal, D. and Block, P. (2011), A framework for comparing form nding methods, In IABSEIASS Annual Symposium, 20-23 September, 2011, London, UK.

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