Rhino Membrane is a application with one of the most powerful form-finding strategies available today. Using a Fea (Finite Element Analysis) model it is able to relax any mesh into a stressed surface in equilibrium with positive stress fields only.
Using sparse matrix strategies it is fast and reliable and any shape from conventional hypar , minimal surfaces and pneumatic cushions can be modeled.
Membrane structures require due to their extreme slenderness a different design process than conventional structures in engineering: since membranes only work in tension (compression will cause wrinkling in the structure), the structure has to be shaped in such a way that it can bear the main load cases only by tensile forces.
To guarantee this essential requirement, the shape of the structure has to be determined by a form finding procedure: Instead of prescribing a material field X (i.e. the amount and position of material in space which composes the structure), an admissible stress field; is prescribed for which the equilibrium shape x is then determined.
In detail, the user has to specify the prestress distribution in the membrane and the edge cables (Pre-Tension) as input for the form finding process.
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