Nonlinear Out-of-Plane Mechanical Behaviours of Rectangular Woven Composite Flexible Skin Under Uniform Normal Pressure

This paper seeks to investigate nonlinear out-of-plane mechanical behaviours of woven composite flexible skin (WCFS) through experimental and theoretical methods. Firstly, quasi-static experiments are carried out on rectangular WCFSs with different aspect ratios under uniform normal pressure to measure out-of-plane deformation and failure loads. Afterwards, a new three-parameter geometric model is presented to describe 3D geometry of pressurized WCFS, and thus, a nonlinear mechanical model is deduced for depicting the relationship between pressure and out-of-plane displacement. The application of the aforementioned models for experimental results shows that the new models have adequately and logically depicted deformation geometry and nonlinear mechanical characteristics.