Abstract Inflated membrane tubes are popularly used as supporting members in civil engineering and aerospace engineering. The stiffness and bearing capacity of the tube originate from the tensile stress of the membrane induced by the inner air pressure. Deformation of the tube under load results in a change in this pressure and hence influences the tensile stress of the enveloping membrane and the stiffness of the tube. The latter would affect the deformation again. Such an interaction between the deformation of the enveloping membrane and the inner air pressure plays an important role in the mechanical behavior of the tube, and yet it has not received any attention according to the literature. This paper experimentally studied the air-membrane interaction of an inflated tube under both axial compression and transverse bending and its influence on the critical wrinkling load and ultimate bearing capacity with variations in the initial pressure, constraint type, axial load and slenderness ratio. A special experimental setup and test procedure were designed and developed to test the inflated tubes. The experimental results reveal quantitatively the air-membrane interaction and its significant influence on the mechanical behaviors of an inflated membrane tube which are sensitive to the four influencing factors studied. The results can be helpful to the understanding of the behavior of inflated membrane tubes with the air-membrane interaction, and may therefore improve the reliability of the tubes in civil and aerospace engineering applications.

中文翻译：

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充气膜管内气与包膜相互作用的实验研究

摘要 充气膜管在土木工程和航空航天工程中广泛用作支撑构件。管的刚度和承载能力源于内部气压引起的膜的拉伸应力。管子在负载下的变形会导致该压力发生变化，从而影响包络膜的拉伸应力和管子的刚度。后者会再次影响变形。包络膜的变形与内部气压之间的这种相互作用在管的机械行为中起着重要作用，但根据文献尚未受到任何关注。本文通过实验研究了膨胀管在轴向压缩和横向弯曲下的气膜相互作用及其对初始压力、约束类型、轴向载荷和长细比变化的临界起皱载荷和极限承载力的影响。设计和开发了一种特殊的实验装置和测试程序来测试充气管。实验结果定量地揭示了空气-膜相互作用及其对充气膜管力学行为的显着影响，这对所研究的四个影响因素很敏感。结果有助于理解充气膜管在空气-膜相互作用下的行为，