Inflatable membraneous structures

The investigation reported in this thesis concerns two aspects of inflatable membraneous structures. The first, the formulation of a non-linear (finitedeformation) theory of thin elastic membrane-shells, relies heavily on the works of Novozhilov (1953, 1959, 1961) as a source for the well-established basis of the theory. The present exposition, however, extends the published formulations of membrane-shell theory with respect to the deformed state by presenting the exact non-linear membrane-shell formulation with respect to the initial (undeformed) state. The specific problems of interest here do not require the formulation of a shell theory catering also for bending effects.[…]