• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2009

In this paper, dynamic instability of plane membrane structures under wind action has been studied. The key to solving the governing equations of membrane structures under wind action is how to obtain the air pressure on membrane. Based on Bernoulli's theorem, fluid pressure has a certain relationship with velocity potential. Velocity potential could be solved according to thin aerofoil theory, where air around the membrane is regarded as a sheet of vortices. In this paper, we take advantage of the most commonly used three-node triangular membrane element and weighted residual-Galerkin method to obtain the determining equation for stability evaluation. Square and rectangular membrane structures are studied. The influence of initial prestressing force and wind direction towards critical wind velocity are also analyzed in this paper.