Interactive buckling of an inflated envelope under mechanical and thermal loads

This paper elucidates the interactive buckling behaviors of an inflated envelope under coupled mechanical and thermal loads, especially the longitudinal wrinkling bifurcation and hoop ovalization buckling. The longitudinal bending buckling process of the inflated envelope can be divided into three continuous stages, which are global buckling, interactive global-local buckling, and kink. A variety of hoop ovalization buckling modes are observed under coupled mechanical-thermal load. Unlike the mechanical case, thermal load leads to a hoop negative ovalization buckling. In addition, it can accelerate the longitudinal coupled bifurcation and resist the hoop coupled ovalization buckling. Moreover, the bending resistance of the inflated envelope will be improved when the length of the structure is increased, resulting in the difficulty of it to become wrinkled. These results provide a new insight into the buckling behaviors of an inflated envelope under coupled external loads, and give a reference for the design of the inflated envelope.