Inflatable structures

Fabrication is also commonly used to build inflatable boats, protective clothing and inflatable structures, particularly those made of soft PVC. The workers must be skilled and the labour costs are high. 

Figure 17.21 A concept for inflatable greenhouses (overhead view) that might be deployed on the surface of Mars (source Sadler and Giacomelli, 2002). Inflatable structure are light weight and could be stowed in a small volume, but will require materials that are air tight, transparent, and tolerant of the UV radiation on the surface of Mars.

The flowers of members of the Brassicaceae have four petals arranged in a cross-like pattern (the old name for this family was Cruciferae, referring to the cross of crucifixion). The flowers of mustards contain both female and male parts (i.e., they are monoecious). There are six stamens, of which four have long filaments, and two have short filaments. The seeds of plants in this family are contained in a relatively long inflated structure called a silique, or in a rounder flattened structure known as a silicle. When mature, the outer walls of the fruits fall away, leaving an inner partition to which the seeds are loosely attached. 

Other film-based structures include film-fabric laminates where LCP films provide strength and stiffness while the fabric layer provides tear resistance. This type of construction is widely used for high performance sails. Currently, polyester film is laminated on Kevlar fabric, or in some cases, the polyester film is used alone (so-called monofilm sails). Lightweight inflatable structures including boats and pressurized shelters u.se this type of construction. Cost-effective high performance LCP blends could find applications for these types of structures. 

Application is also found in the coating of fabrics that are used for inflatable structures, flexible fuel tanks, tarpaulins, and hatch and boat covers. These products offer the advantages of being lightweight and colorful. Consumer items such as awnings, boating garb, convertible tops, and other products also make use of fabrics coated with this elastomer. 

Uses Stabilizer for flexible and rigid PVC compds., calendering, extrusion, inj. molding, powd. molding, slush and rotational molding, hose and profile, filled systems, film and sheet stabilizer for external coatings, roofing sheets, canvas material, tents, portable inflatable structures, coated metal surfaces Trade Names Mark TT... 

Onate, E., Kroplin, B. Textile composites and inflatable structures II, Proceedings of the II International Conference on Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures, 2-5. October, Stuttgart, CIMNE Barcelona (2005)... 

R. Blum and H. Bogner On the importance of elastic moduli in the analysis of membrane structures, Lecture of the ECCOMAS-Symposium Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures II, Stuttgart, October 2005... 

T Stegmaier and H. Planck New material developments with textiles. Paper at the International Conference on Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures, Structural Membranes 2007, Barcelona, Spain, 17-19 September 2007... 

One of the first air-inflated structures made from ETFE-foils among other materials that is stabilised by negative pressure is the temporary haU, called Airtecture , of the company Festo in Esslingen, Germany, built in 1996. 

The CTH approach also has some other differences as compared to SMASH. For example, the SMASH approach focuses on non-load-bearing applications such as self-healing bladders, inflated structure membranes, architectural building envelopes, and coaling [52,54]. On the other hand, the CTH approach focuses on load bearing structures. It also considers the boundary conditions to be encountered in real structure applications, as discussed above. 

Inflatable structures Structures opened or enlarged by input of air and, once enlarged, able to retain the air to maintain the distended position. 

Rigidised inflatable structures are those that are fabricated from shape-memory polymers (SMP)Zcarbon fibre composite materials the methods... 

Rigidised inflatable structures are those that are fabricated from Shape Memory Polymers (SMP)/carbon fibre composite materials the methods utilised are similar to those used for traditional thermosetting composite structures, except that the epoxy that is used is a lightly cross-linked one. The final deployed shape of the SMP composite structure is established during its initial cure cycle. Once the SMP material is completely cured, it can be... 

Tung, S. Witherspoon, S.R. Roe, L.A. Silano, A. Maynard, D.P. and Ferraro, N. A MEMS-based flexible sensor and actuator system for space inflatable structures. Smart Mater. Struct., 10 (2001), pp. 1230-1239... 

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