Aerosail

Structural Engineering

The engineering of fabric structures is recognised as a highly specialised discipline within the structural engineering field. Engineers who undertake this type of work should undertake a post graduate course and work with an engineer who has at least 2 years tension membrane experience before undertaking un-supervised work on tension membrane structures. They should have access to FEA and membrane form find /analysis software ( Forten 4000 and Easy are widely regarded). There have been a number of spectacular ( and very expensive) failures of fabric structures around the world. For this reason Aerosail prefer to use consulting structural engineers who specialise in fabric structures and who have at least 10 years experience with this type of work. We use membrane form find and analysis software on a daily basis and are able to handle most types most types of designs. We are not structural engineers and this type work is performed under the supervision of a consulting engineer. The enclosed links are examples of Aerosail’s capability in regard to form finding and analysis. [slideshow]