A curved bistable composite slit tube for deployable membrane structures

This paper uses experimental, numerical and analytical methods to investigate the bistable behavior of a curved bistable composite slit tube (Bi-CST). Using the vacuum bag method, two specimens were prepared and bistable experiments were performed. Two Finite Element Models (FEMs) were presented to model the bistable defor-mation process. Based on the minimum energy principle and three failure criteria, an analytical model to determine the bistable behavior of the curved Bi-CST was proposed, including the strain energy, geometric configuration and stress level. Analytical and numerical results agreed well with experimental results.