The Stress-Strain-Behaviour for Coated Orthotropic Fabrics and its Influence on the Analysis of prestressed Membranes, an Approach

This paper will clarify the material behaviour of coated orthotropic fabrics under normal stresses. The influence of the elastic behaviour on the structural analysis of membrane buildings will be discussed. At the end it is possible to introduce a membrane stiffness, a linear combination of elastic modules and mean curvature. With the aid of this number one can easily check the accuracy with which the mechanical behaviour of membrane structures should be approximated. The membrane stiffness can be a discriminator for the way how to analyse membrane structures.