Biaxial creep property of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) foil

Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) foil is a novel structural material which has being used in shell and spatial structures. This paper studies biaxial creep property of ETFE foil by creep tests and numerical simulation. Biaxial creep tests of cruciform specimens were performed using three stress ratios, 1:1, 2:1 and 1:2, which showed that creep coefficients in biaxial tension were much smaller than those in uniaxial one. Then, a reduction factor was introduced to take account of this biaxial effect, and relation between the reduction factor and stress ratio was established. Circular bubble creep test and triangle cushion creep test of ETFE foil were performed to verify the relation. Interpolation was adopted to consider creep stress and reduction factor was involved to take account of biaxial effect in numerical simulation. Simulation results of the bubble creep test embraced a good agreement with those measuring ones. In triangle cushion creep test, creep displacements from numerical simulation showed a good agreement with those from creep test at the center and lower foil measuring points.