Experimental and numerical investigation on the structural performance of the tensioning air beam system

An experimental and numerical study on the structural performance of the tensioning air beam system (TABS) is presented. TABS is a hybrid structural system consisting of a membrane air beam, steel frames and cable struts. This system has the advantage of reduced self-weight and is easy to construct while it can improve the load bearing capacity of membrane structures. It maximizes the structural capacities of individual elements, thus can be considered as a very effective system in terms of both structural and economical aspects. In this paper, a test was carried out to examine the structural performance of TABS under different membrane pressure conditions. The material properties of the air beam were obtained from the results of two membrane tensile strength tests, which were performed prior to the main test. A simple numerical model was proposed to predict the structural behavior of TABS and its validity was evaluated by comparing its results with the test values.