In the paper, laboratory tests carried out by the authors with axial (0° - warp, 90° - weft) and off-axial (15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75°) tensile and also with biaxial tensile with shear with different load ratios are described. The purpose of the research was to determine the mechanical properties of material used at numerical simulations of membrane structures. Two different types of a technical coated fabrics used in the experiments - with and without Precontraint® technology. To measure the displacement and strain fields on the surface of specimens, the method of digital image correlation has been used. Numerical simulation of technical coated fabrics, imitating carried-out laboratory tests, has been executed with using of software program Ansys Workbench. It is revealed owing to analysis of results of numerical simulations that shear stresses make a significant contribution to the stress-strain state of material in off-axial and biaxial tensile with shear. The possibility of applying several classical criteria for fracture strength of composite materials in order to predict and evaluate the behavior of technical coated fabrics under load is shown.