Application Grid Analysis Of Membrane Structure A Preliminary Study Of The Problem Of Form

Membrane structure is a kind of space structure which uses structural membrane as the supporting member. It belongs to the system of large deformation structure and has been widely used. Now, there are three main methods which have been applied to the analysis of membrane structures, including Force Density Method, Dynamic Relaxation Method and Finite Element Methods. All three methods have their own advantages and disadvantages.Meshless Methods, or Meshfree Methods, are relatively new numerical implementation. They have been studied and developed for about only two decades years. Meshless Methods construct approximation entirely in terms of nodes without meshes. They adopt function approximation instead of interpolation. Therefore, mesh distortion will not occur in Meshless Methods. Nowadays, there are more than ten types of Meshless Methods. The main differences between them are the forms of trial function and differential equation. Among these Meshless Methods, the Reproducing Kernel Particle Method (RKPM) is one of the methods which are extensive studied and used.This dissertation concentrates on the Form-finding problem of membrane structures, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the main methods for the analysis of membrane structures, including Force Density Method, Dynamic Relaxation Method and Finite Element Methods. Moreover, the basic theory of RKPM is discussed, and a MATLAB program is developed on the basis of nonlinear theory trying to solve the Form-finding problem of membrane structures. Finally, the results are discussed and some opinions are given for further study.