This thesis presented the concept of controlling the response of inflatable structure under applied load. Inflatable structures are lightweight structures with flexible membrane filled by compressed gas or any fluid. Since this thin wall structure may collapse under external applied load, such as impact or snow, various researches have been done to control the stiffness of the structure by adjusting its internal pressure. Nevertheless, the prediction of the behavior of inflatable structure in advance, is very complicated due to its highly nonlinear behavior. Within this thesis, optimization algorithm, based on steepest descent method, was used to define the optimum pressure of cushion with the aim to increase its stiffness during impact or snow. Analysis of the pneumatic structure was done by a finite element software package. Cushion responded to different type of applied load with different behavior. A bunch of characteristic diagrams were presented to describe several aspects of the cushion response under the performance of a controller. These diagrams would help the designers to predict behaviors of the cushion. The results proved that pressure adjustment method plays a significant role in the reduction of strain energy of the system, and the optimization method is an effective method for achieving the optimum pressure     «

This thesis presented the concept of controlling the response of inflatable structure under applied load. Inflatable structures are lightweight structures with flexible membrane filled by compressed gas or any fluid. Since this thin wall structure may collapse under external applied load, such as impact or snow, various researches have been done to control the stiffness of the structure by adjusting its internal pressure. Nevertheless, the prediction of the behavior of inflatable structure in ad...     »