Half-span loading of cable structures

Continuous analysis of prestressed cable structures under the action of symmetrical loads leads us to a cubic equation in regard to relative deflection of the structure. For the case of nonsymmetrical loads, a simple solution may be derived only for a single cable. For composite cable structures, a direct solution to the problem requires the use of relatively complicated expansion into a series in terms of deflection parameters. A simpler solution may be found by means of division of the load into a symmetrical and an antisymmetrical part and subsequent equations to provide the solution. The validity of this will be substantiated in the first part of this presentation. As a result of using this method we can obtain a relatively simple solution to the problem for different prestressed cable structures. The corresponding dependence of deflections and inner forces of the structure upon the main cable parameters and comparison of the solution obtained with the exact results is presented. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.