Experiment and Theoretical Analysis Study of ETFE Inflatable Tubes

The load bearing capacity of an ETFE (ethylene-tetra-fluoro-ethylene) inflatable tube is tested in this paper, and a comparative study of two wrinkling theories, the bifurcation theory and the tension field theory, is carried out for wrinkling analysis of the ETFE inflatable tube. Results obtained from the bifurcation theory and experiment reveal the limitations of tension field theory on the wrinkling analysis. The load-displacement curves of inflatable beams under bending load are obtained and compared with the experimental results; curves obtained using the bifurcation theory show coincidence with experimental curves, but the curves obtained using the tension field theory have noticeable deviations between calculated and experimental results.