Nonlinear Buckling Analysis after Pretensioning (Wrinkling Study – Patran/Nastran SOL 400)

[Nic0]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to replicate a wrinkling experiment on solar sails described by Wong and Pellegrino, originally performed in Abaqus. Their simulation procedure involves three main steps:

1. A nonlinear static analysis to apply a pretensioning load.
2. A nonlinear buckling analysis to obtain an initial imperfection or deformed mesh shape.
3. A follow-up nonlinear analysis to apply further loads and study the onset of wrinkling based on the previous buckled shape.

I would like to perform the same simulation workflow in Patran/Nastran using SOL 400, but I’m struggling with one specific part:
How can I correctly pass the pretensioned state from the first step into a nonlinear buckling analysis in the second step?

Is there a way to use the deformed/stressed state from the nonlinear static solution as the starting point or preloaded state for the buckling computation?

Any advice, workflow steps, or examples would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!