• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.905-911
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• 2007

In this paper, geometrically and materially non-linear finite element analyses were performed to study the crease behavior of thin membranes. The cross-section of the membrane was modeled with 2-dimensional plane strain elements. To simulate the creasing process, the membrane mesh was folded, compressed to prescribed crease gauge by activating two rigid contact surfaces, and then released to give the crease topology. Various crease gauges were considered to investigate the effect of crease intensity on the initial deployment angle. The crease geometry was also obtained by experiments and the results were compared.