A BEM based domain decomposition method for nonlinear analysis of elastic space membranes

In this paper the Domain Decomposition Method (DDM) is developed for nonlinear analysis of both flat and space elastic membranes of complicated geometry which may have holes. The domain of the projection of the membrane on the xy plane is decomposed into non-overlapping subdomains and the membrane problem is solved sequentially in each subdomain starting from zero displacements on the virtual boundaries. The procedure is repeated until the traction continuity conditions are also satisfied on the virtual boundaries. The membrane problem in each subdomain is solved using the Analog Equation Method (AEM). According to this method the three coupled strongly nonlinear partial differential equations, governing the response of the membrane, are replaced by three uncoupled linear membrane equations (Poisson's equations) subjected to fictitious sources under the same boundary conditions. The fictitious sources are established using a meshless BEM procedure. Example problems are presented, for both flat and space membranes, which illustrate the method and demonstrate its efficiency and accuracy.