Wrinkle-crease interaction behavior simulation of a rectangular membrane under shearing

Wrinkling analysis of a rectangular membrane with a single crease under shearing is performed to understand the wrinkle-crease interaction behaviors. The crease is considered by introducing the residual stresses from creasing and the effective modulus into the baseline configuration with assumed circular cross-sectional crease geometry. The wrinkling analysis of the creased membrane is then performed by using the direct perturb-force (DP) simulation technique which is based on our modified displacement components (MDC) method. Results reveal that the crease may influence the stress transfer path in the membrane and further change the wrinkling direction. The crease appears to improve the bending stiffness of the membrane which has an effective resistance on the wrinkling evolution. The effects of the crease orientation on wrinkle-crease interaction are studied toward the end of this paper. The results show that the wrinkling amplitude, wavelength, and direction increase as the crease orientation increases, and the wrinkling number decreases with the increasing crease orientation. These results will be of great benefit to the analysis and the control of the wrinkles in the membrane structures.