44th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Confere AIAA 2003-1907

7-10 April 2003, Norfolk, Virginia

A RULE OF THUMB FOR THE SUSPENSION

OF FILM SHEETS WITHOUT CATENARIES
G. Greschik , T. M. Murphey ,
M. M. Mikulas , and W. K. Belvin
,
Center for Aerospace Structures, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO,
University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering, U.K.
and
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA

Abstract Introduction

The suspension of certain polygonal films by the ver-
tices and without edge reinforcement is examined. In par-
ticular, shapes into which a circle can be inscribed are
considered and their mechanics explored with an approx-
imate analytic model. Despite its obvious simplifications,
the model succeeds in illuminating a non-obvious aspect
of film behavior and it helps establish approximate limits
on a rule of thumb for the size of the wrinkled re-
gion at a suspended sheet corner. This prediction, shown
to be in decent agreement with previous results, helps ex-
plain previous numerical observations and indirectly veri-
fies that the wrinkling mechanism shown with the simpli-
fied model is a valid aspect of sheet mechanics.
Finally, high fidelity numerical efforts to explore (with
the stability and post-buckling analysis of wrinkle devel-
opment) the limitations of the current results are briefly
discussed. These results for some realistic film and sheet
dimensions contradict both the current predictions and pre-
vious results based on tension field theory. The causes of
the differences are not investigated.
Beyond the introduction and analysis of an approxi-
mate model for the understanding of film structural wrin-
kling, a standard measure to characterize with a single
scalar parameter the average magnitude of film tension-
ing in the sheet interior is also offered.
Nomenclature
, direct stress and strain
( ) nom reference to nominal parameter (sheet interior)
t, E, film thickness, Youngs modulus, Poisson ratio
F force; suspension force
r, rA radial coordinate; distance from vertex A
x, variables along film strip for strain integration
normalized radial coordinate, = r/r A
d Poisson-contracted strip width at initial
material location r
proportionality coefficient
While the effect of structural wrinkles on solar sail
thrust may not be significant in certain conditions 1 , con-
cerns about the impact of structural wrinkles on the ef-
fectiveness of onsail steering and attitude control remain.
Therefore, the understanding and quantitative assessment
of wrinkling the expanse, orientation, wavelength, and
amplitude of the wrinkles continues to be of interest
in solar sailing unless structural wrinkling is suppressed
with the edge suspension, a heavier alternative 2, 3 .
The present paper contributes to the understanding of
structural wrinkling via establishing and analyzing a sim-
plified mechanical model which aims to capture some key
wrinkling characteristics with a rule-of-thumb approach.
This route drastically differs from usual attempts to the
modeling of winkling which range from the tension field
theory 4 and its applications 5, 6 through the scrutiny of
wrinkle development details via analytic, numerical, and
experimental means 7, 8 . Here, strife for accuracy and de-
tailed understanding is replaced with a back of the enve-
lope approach a rule of thumb for the rough assessment
of the bounds of overall reponse is sought.
The motivation for taking this quick and dirty ap-
proach is the keen need for rapid and approximate rela-
tions for the understanding and design of stretched film
sheets and solar sails, the engineering of which has long
been plagued with computational difficulties and limited
insight. However, even within this scope, the goals of the
present work are somewhat specific. In particular: instead
of pursuing relations that govern global design (such as
those presented on empirical grounds in another excellent
recent contribution 2 ), attention is limited to the compo-
nent level: to a single polygonal sheet without edge rein-
Research Associate, Member AIAA.
Research Associate, Member AIAA.
Professor Emeritus, Fellow AIAA.
Technical Staff, Fellow AIAA.

1
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Copyright 2003 by Greschik. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission.
forcement, stretched by its corners. A A
Within this scope, two contributions are made. First, /2
/2 /2 /2
it is proposed that according to earlier work 9 film
tension be characterized in the context of how the sheet (a)
polygonal shape relates geometrically to its inscribed cir-
cle (which exists for sheet shapes commonly considered). O
Second, a model to illuminate one aspect of the wrin- O
kling mechanism within the same geometric context is B B
presented. With an approach akin to the tension field the-
ory wherein wrinkling is two-dimensional and is manifest A A
as compressive strain coupled with zero stress, approxi-
mate bounds are then established qfor the dimensions of
the region of structural wrinkled near the suspended cor- (b) A'
A'
ners. Predictions are found to be in agreement with earlier O
numerical results based on tension field theory. Finally, O
the predictions are related to the three-dimensional reality
of structural wrinkling, revealing some limitations. B B
A A
The inscribed polygon and the core D'
D rA
The arguments to follow will be developed in the con- (c) rA A'
A'
text of three shapes the inscribed circle, the inscribed O
polygon, and the core defined within and by the film
O
sheet shape. (Shapes into which no circle can be inscribed
are not considered.) B B
Start with constructing the inscribed circle of the mem-
Fig. 1: Inscribed circle (a), -polygon (b), and core (c).
brane sheet, Fig. 1 (a). (A characteristic of this shape
is that the lines connecting its center with the enclosing
polygons vertices are corner angle bisectors.) The os- Scope
culation points between this circle and the sheet bound- The first order model applies to polygonal film sheets into
ary (marked with letters with apostrophes) subtend the in- which an inscribed circle can be drawn. All triangles, the
scribed polygon, Fig. 1 (b). Finally, arcs drawn about the rhomboid, the square, the kite shape, all regular polygons,
film sheet corners to connect the inscribed polygon ver- etc. are included. Not included are the general shapes such
vices define the core, Fig. 1 (c). The pie-shape segments as the general trapezoid, general quadrangle, etc.
outside the core (e.g., the AAOD shape) will be referred
to as the shape corners. Interior stress and suspension forces
The inscribed circle (with the derivative polygon and Start with assuming that the interior of the inscribed poly-
core) is a convenient tool to illustrate or grasp certain fea- gon is uniformly and isotropically stressed with a nom
tures of the suspension and the film mechanics if the sus- nominal skin stress. The stresses on the sides are, there-
pending forces are aligned with its center. (This role, ex- fore, direct stresses of the same magnitude, ultimately
ploited below, was recognized earlier 9 and subsequently transferred to the corner suspension points. Each suspen-
reiterated in other publications 1, 2, 10 .) sion force vector F i , therefore, is (a) perpendicular and (b)
length-proportional to the corresponding inscribed poly-
gon side li
A first order model
Fi = li (1)
For a first degree assessment of the magnitude of film
stresses near the sheet center, we shall ignore all second- with the proportionality coefficient
order effects as well as deformations such as the inward
= nom t (2)
sag of the sheet edges. We shall further adopt simplify-
ing assumptions on the stress flow within the sheet. The For the triangular example in Fig. 2, and denoting length
resulting, greatly simplified, model was referred to earlier with overbar, one obtains
as the Inscribed Polygon Procedure 9 .
FA = BC (3)

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 four separate sail quadrants
FA b
FA= 4 nom t (A/s) cos( / 2)
A nom : nominal
/2 /2 t : film thickness stress
s : circumference, t : film
nom A: area of ABC thickness
B' triangle F
C' FA
O inscribed... L=b/ 2 22.5 o
e ...circle e FA = FB =
...polygon
nom nom = .383 nom t b
FB FC = .293 nom t b nom FB
FC
B A' C FC F = .707 nom t b
Fig. 2: Triangular film sheet. Fig. 4: Square sail film and boom loads.

e 45 o F the suspension forces are F A = FB = (0.383 nom t b) at

o the acute vertices and F C = (0.293 nom t b) at the right
45
F = t b / 2
b are FA = FB = FC = (0.5 t b).
O t : film thickness
inscribed...
...circle e
...polygon
b
Fig. 3: Square sheet.
FB = CA
FC = AB
Note that, while the assumed stress state within the
inscribed polygon is clearly incorrect (it is true only in
an average sense), the corner suspension forces derived
are sound. In particular, they (a) comprise an equilibrium
system and (b) represent a desirable loading condition by
virtue of
the symmetric loading of the sheet corners (orienting
each corner load along the angle bisector) and
resulting in near minimal structural wrinkling (numer-
ically confirmed 11 ).
The equilibrium of suspension, a corollary of the way
the forces are defined, can also be seen to follow from the
geometric interpretation of the force vectors. The latter,
linked after one another for summation, trace a closed line
geometrically similar to the inscribed polygon.
Examples applications
The model is illustrated and the film suspension forces
are given in closed form for triangular and square sheets
in Figs. 2 and 3.
For a right isosceles triangle with the diagonal side b,
corner. For an equilateral triangle of sides b, the forces
Film suspension and boom loads procedure are shown
in Fig. 4 for a square solar sail of four separate quadrants
and no cord reinforcement. The axial boom load F is from
two film sheets (one on each side of the boom).
Discussion
Under certain common geometric and loading conditions,
the model described defines a nominal stress nom near the
sheet center from corner suspension loads via a mechan-
ically reasonable but approximate manner. As a result,
(4) nom is not an engineering estimate of the maximum film
(5) stress or of the stress at the sheet center. Rather, it should
be used as an average stress rule for the central region of
the sheet, defined in a geometrically general manner for
applicability to an entire class of sheet shapes. Its previ-
ous application is within this context 1 .
Generalization to consider wrinkling
The mechanics assumed above can be made more re-
alistic by considering free-body diagrams with the core,
as opposed to the inscribed polygon, as the definitive ele-
ment of modeling. This shift permits an approach where
kinematic considerations can be added to those of equilib-
rium, allowing the consideration of wrinkling.
A model based on the shape core
Consider the core and the shape corners of a sheet as inter-
connected but distinct elements, and remove material con-
tinuity within the latter along radial lines essentially
slicing the pie shaped corner regions into sets of tapered
radial strips, shown for a triangular film sheet in Fig. 5. It
is important to note that this paradigm shift of replacing
the inscribed polygon with the core does not affect in any

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 FA nom= nom E /(1-v)
nom=nom (1-v) / E
A c
c=nom
rA

nom M
nom rB vA
rC

FC FB A
C nom nom
r = /rA
B rA
N
Fig. 5: Discontinuous model.
Fig. 7: Corner mechanics: key parameters.
y
x d ux and the lateral Poisson contraction is
dc d = x d = F / (E t)
F
Ac=dc t E, t, v A=Ac (L-x)/L = dc x,c / E (10)
L
where x,c is the longitudinal stress at the support. Elon-
Fig. 6: The stretch of a tapered strip. gation ux tends to infinity with a singularity where the
cross section diminishes at the tip x = L, while the abso-
way the relationship established earlier between suspen- lute contraction d is constant all over the entire strip.
sion forces and film interior nominal stresses (cf. Eqs. 3 This result apparently shows that the deformed strip
through 5). This is because the traction around the core width ddef = d d would be negative where the (con-
herein assumed, Fig. 5, has the same hydrostatic char- stant) contraction is greater than the initial strip width,
acteristics as that on the inscribed polygon in the previous d > d. This paradox result is due to the assumptions
model. The following arguments, therefore, do not alter of linear elasticity, clearly inappropriate where d ap-
the way the nominal stresses can be assessed. proaches the order of magnitude of d. The vicinity of the
We shall subject this model to the suspension loads by singularity at x = L is beyond the scope of this model, and
the strip tips, qexamine the resulting stress and strain pat- will be subsequently ignored.
terns, and then re-establish continuity between the strips,
Core and corner mechanics
arriving at the subject problem. The basic element of this
analysis, the response of an individual film strip, is exam- The key assumptions and parameters for the considera-
ined first. tions to follow are illustrated in Fig. 7. Within the sheet
core, the stress and strain nom , nom are nominally uni-
Strip response form and isotropic, in accordance to the c = nom tension
Consider the slender triangular film strip in Fig 6 of thick- on the core boundary. The two are related via
ness, Youngs modulus, and Poisson ration t, E, and
nom = nom (1) / E (11)
an element of the model in Fig. 5. Denoting the strip
length and width at the base with L and d c , the the un- The nom tension, transferred from the suspended cor-
deformed cross section area with A, one obtains the lon- ners (A in the figure), also stretches the tapered strips, cf.
gitudinal stress and strain at an x distance away from the Eqs. 9 and 10. This stretch, first, lengthens the strips
base from an F tip load as in region N, possibly stretching into the outer side of A
in the extreme, if the finite undeformed radius about A to
A = d t = dc t (Lx)/L (6)
bound the sheet at the corner is too small in the context
x = F/A = F L / [dc t (Lx)] (7) of the stresses. Second, the strips also contract laterally.
x = F/(EA) = F L / [E dc t (Lx)] (8) While the combination of strip elongation and contrac-
tion interacts with the state of the core, modifying direct
The elongation from the strip base to a location x is thus

x stresses and strains and effecting shears in both core and
FL L corner, this interaction will be acknowledged here only in
ux = x d = ln (9)
=0 E d c t Lx part, via the effective strain c parameter, measured about

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
the core boundary. The value is this strain is left unspeci- nom in the core, zone 1,
fied at this point, and it will be used as a parameter in the zone 1 reduces when zone 2
derivation to follow. contracts as a result
Another major simplification is that the local effects nom c of closing the
gaps therein
near the corner A (region N) are ignored. When the corner
(the corner tab) is pulled by the suspension force, the strip zone 2
tips will move outward together along vector vA , Fig. 7, wrinkled
as opposed to individually moving radially as herein as- region
sumed. The current assumption ignores all shears and ad-
ditional in-plane direct stresses and strains resulting from zone 3
this difference in reality. These simplifications are made A
rA r* =* /rA
purely for convenience.
Shown also in Fig. 7 is the parameter r the radial
coordinate along the strips from their collective geomet- Fig. 8: Three zones.
ric apex A. This coordinate is normalized according to the
corner shape radius r A to yield the nondimensional pa-
rameter Simplification then yields
= r / rA (12) dc
d = (r+rA c ) dc (17)
rA
The film kinematic state at a generic location r from A is
examined in the next section. Finally, let the strips stretch. Initial location r will then
undergo a
Deformations and the development of wrinkles
Consider the film deformations at the initially undeformed nom rA rA
r = ln (18)
material location r comfortably away from the corner A 1 r
by first assessing the cross-strip condition and then adding translation towards A, according to Eqs. 9, 11, and 13.
strip elongation effects subsequently. For convenience, re- This translation will narrow the inter-strip gaps the more
place in the calculations the infinitesimal strip widths with the nearer to A. The location r where the gaps exactly
finite dimensions, defined by d c undeformed width at the close is the edge of the wrinkled region. Based on geo-
strip base. metric considerations, this position can be obtained from
From the direct stress at the base, Fig. 7, the load in the relation
each strip is
d + dc r+rA c
F = nom dc t (13) = (19)
rA r+rA c r
Thus the width Poisson contraction, via Eqs. 10 and 11, is
which, after substitutions and simplifications, can be re-
d = /(1) nom dc (14) duced to

which is constant throughout. The absolute gaps between 0 = c (1) + nom ( + ln ) (20)
the strips dc before elongation is accounted for, how-
ever, are also affected by the effective core strain c on in which is the normalized location of the edge of the
the core perimeter wrinkled zone, cf. Eq. 12
The circumferential stretch on the core boundary, c ,
dc = [c + /(1) nom ] dc (15) is difficult to assess within the framework of the present
From which, considering that model. However, upper and lower bounds to it can be eas-
this gap is constant throughout the corner region be- ily established from considering the last step of the model-
cause elongation is not yet accounted for and ing process the removal of discontinuities (of the radial
incisions) from the corner regions.
the c core strain, within the context of our assump- Before continuity is restored, three zones within the
tions, means a like strain for the entire corner region, film sheets can be distinguished as shown in Fig. 8. Within
including rA , the core, the film is taut and stressed to the nominal state
the laterally contracted strip width d at initial material lo- nom , nom zone 1. In the discontinuous region near
cation r is the core, the gaps between the strips are open in zone 2.
rA (1+c) (rA r) Finally, we denote with zone 3 the region of the discon-
d = dc (1+c) dc (16)
rA (1+c) tinuous corner where strip elongation has closed the gaps.

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A zone 2 zone 2
zone 1
zone 1 zone 2
Fig. 9: The relative dominance of zones 1 and 2.
Restoring continuity first in zone 3 has no effect on the
mechanical state because excess material has already con-
gested in this zone (rushed in by the strip elongations),
so sealing the gaps simply transforms this excess material
into wrinkles. However, sealing the gaps in zone 2 en-
tails circumferentially contraction therein, necessary for
closing the gaps for pulling the strip edges into contact
with one another. This contraction works against the core
strain, finally reducing nom to c . The extent of strain re-
duction is determined by the relative dominance of zones
1 and 2 when their opposing effects settle.
The outcome of the interaction between the two zones
is related to the zone sizes and relative orientations. Near
the sheet edges where a slender, tapered, corner of the
core, zone 1, is squeezed between zones 2 on the adjacent
corners of finite expanses, Fig. 9 (a), the restraining effect
of the core is almost entirely suppressed by the contraction
when the gaps close. As a result, the core boundary strain
c will equal to the strip Poisson contraction
c = nom
1
and, consequently. Eq. 20 gives
= 1
which means that the wrinkles spread all along the radius
of the pie shaped corner region.
The other extreme is when the core fully dominates the
interaction and the strips in zone 2 must expand laterally
to entirely compensate for the gaps. In this case
c = nom
and Eq. 20 gives
= 0.368 1/3 (24)
This extreme is approached for shapes with a large core at
locations nearest to the shape center, Fig. 9 (b). Relations
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
*1 =0.40
*2 =0.82
Fig. 10: Wrinkled regions isosceles triangle shape.
B
* =0.35
Fig. 11: Wrinkled regions regular hexagon shape.
Eqs. 22 and 24 define bounds on the radial dimension of
the structurally wrinkled corner region:
1/3 < < 1 (25)
Agreement with tension field theory results
The bounds stated in Eq. 25 for the radial dimension of the
wrinkled region are in generally good agreement with nu-
merical predictions based on the tension field theory 11 .
The examples of an isosceles triangle, a hexagon, and an
(21) octagon are shown in Figs. 10, 11, and 12, with the nor-
malized size parameter shown in each figure in the di-
rection towards the sheet center. By ignoring the film
material parameters and load values in this comparison we
(22) exploit previous observations that the dominant nonlin-
ear mechanism is the shape of the wrinkle region, which
only changes with a redistribution of loads 1 which ren-
ders the shape of the wrinkled region unaffected by most
material properties and by the load magnitudes in the scope
of tension field theory.
Comments
(23)
Two aspects of the results in Figs. 10 through 12 are note-
worthy. One, that the current prediction is in full agree-
ment with the numerical results along the sheet edges:
both predict that wrinkles fully extended on the perime-
ter, entirely encircling the sheet. What makes this agree-
ment significant is that the errors of the present analysis
are likely to be the greatest near the sheet edges where the
6

* =0.31
Fig. 12: Wrinkled regions regular octagon shape.
suspension corner effects (herein ignored) are most pro-
nounced.
Another interesting point is that the minimal radial ex-
panse of the numerically predicted wrinkled region for the
octagonal model is somewhat below the minimum size
predicted by analysis. This difference, however, is not of
much concern in light of the approximations herein made.
Comparison with explicit wrinkle modeling
In addition to verification with earlier numerical re-
sults based on the tension field theory, comparison with
high fidelity explicit stability-based analyses of wrinkle
development has also been sought 8 . Comparison with
these advanced analyses revealed two issues related to
the approach of and the assumptions underlying the cur-
rent model: those of corner effects and of the difference
between tension field wrinkling and true wrinkling, in
which film bending performance also plays a role.
Corner effects tabs
Tabs are typically used to reinforce the polygon vertices
where film suspension forces are applied. The resulting
film stress distribution is highly sensitive to the properties
of these tabs.
The effects of tab properties are herein illustrated with
the conclusions of two linear elastic finite element stud-
ies performed on an equilateral triangle. First, effectively
rigid tabs ranging from large (tab radius equal to 0.25
times the distance from triangle vertex to center) to di-
minishingly small were modeled. The results showed that
tabs smaller than 10% of the vertex to center distance are
required to effectively represent the case modeled herein,
where the effect of tabs is ignored. In the second study, the
suspension was designed to represent a poorly designed
tab that would induce wrinkling much greater than a rigid
tab. The tab was modeled as a point load applied at a frac-
tion of the distance from a vertex to film center. As ex-
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pected, this tab influenced the film stress distribution to
a much greater extent and did so even for relatively small
distance fractions. It was found that the distance fraction
should be less than 0.01 for the resulting film stress field
to accurately represent the result obtained for no tab. In
these studies, the criteria used to compare stress fields was
the minimum second principal stress.
The current model should be extended with the con-
sideration of corner (tab) effects.
Wrinkle formation buckling
The explicit analysis of wrinkle development with the sta-
bility and post-buckling method failed to predict wrinkles
for a number of realistic models under symmetric condi-
tions, in contradiction to both the current analytical ap-
proximation and tension field theory. The reason behind
this discrepancy may be that an assumption of the current
work and of tension field theory is that the thin film has
zero bending stiffness. With this assumption, the forma-
tion of wrinkles (i.e., buckling), occurs for infinitesimally
small loads. In reality, there is a finite load at which buck-
ling first occurs and this load proved to be much larger
than previously anticipated, as the following illustration
shows on the example of a classic problem of similar na-
ture the buckling of an axially tensioned and trans-
versely compressed square plate. According to the linear
elastic solution, the critical buckling load of this plate is
2 E t2 (1+n2)2
= (26)
12 a (1 ) n2 1
2 2
where a is the plate edge length (and wrinkle length), is
the tensile stress, is the negated compressive to tensile
stress ratio ( > 0) and n is the number of wrinkles in
the transverse direction (one wrinkle is assumed to form
in the axial direction). The stress according to Eq. 26 is
minimal (representing the first buckling mode) when

ncr = (+2) / (27)
which, substituted back into Eq. 26, gives for the first
buckling mode
2 E t2 1+
cr = (28)
3 a2 (1 2 ) 2
For the equilateral triangle considered in the attempts of
wrinkling model verification, was determined from a
linear finite element analysis to be 0.004. For solar sail
scale dimensions, cr is on the order of 0.01 psi. For lab-
oratory scale experimental samples, cr is on the order of
1,000 psi for thicker materials and 10 psi for very thin
materials. These values, much greater than one would ex-
pect, indicate that corner wrinkling may not happen in a
number of cases even if tension field results so indicate,
unless effected by imperfections.
 Concluding remarks
Despite the apparent success of the back-of-the-enve-
lope analysis developed in the present work in the context
of tension field results, serious concerns arose when veri-
fication with high fidelity explicit wrinkling analyses was
attempted. These concerns may relate both to tension field
theory, its numerical implementation relied upon here, and
to the analytical model herein developed. In light of these
unresolved concerns, the present work cannot be consid-
ered complete.
The most immediate steps to continue the present ef-
fort would include
the development of approximations to quantitatively
assess, not only bound, the effective strain c on the
core boundary and
the study of local effects near the support.
The scope of the latter task includes both (a) the signifi-
cance and impact of the suspending tab size, shape, and
stiffness as well as (b) the specifics of and limitations on
the Saint-Venant principle in the context of film suspen-
sion. The present work has heavily relied on a direct in-
terpretation of the Saint-Venant principle.
Acknowledgments
The present work has been supported by NASA Lan-
gley Research Center. The generous help of Aaron L.
Adler in making examples available from his archive of
film analysis results and in performing some extra analy-
ses is gratefully acknowledged.
References
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A. L. Adler. A method to quantify the thrust degra-
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[9] G. Greschik. Corner suspension forces for the bal-
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