Modeling with Membrane Elements
About Membranes
Membranes can be considered as plane stress elements in 3D with a possibility to deform both in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions. The difference between a shell and a membrane is that the membrane does not have any bending stiffness. If the ratio between the thickness and the dimensions in the other directions becomes very small, a membrane formulation is numerically better posed than a shell formulation.
The Membrane interface supports the same study types as the Solid Mechanics interface except it does not include the Linear Buckling study type, but wrinkling can be modeled instead.
To describe a membrane, provide its thickness and the material properties. All properties can be variable over the element. All elemental quantities are integrated only at the midsurface. This is a good approximation since by definition a membrane is thin.
The physics interface is intended to model either prestressed membranes or a thin cladding on top of a solid.