Newton Iteration Method for Analysis of Suspension Cable

A Newton iteration method is proposed based on the analytic method of segmental catenary for the suspension cable. The method is developed from the Newton iteration method for the nonlinear equations according to the analysis of different common methods. The tangent stiffness matrix of the iteration method is presented and the characteristics of the stiffness matrix are discussed. Then the iterative calculation process of suspension cable's form-finding for the specific engineering problem is listed. The method offers significant improvements in accuracy, efficiency and calculation amount of the solution, which can meet the needs of practical engineering. The results of the Newton iteration method are compared with the numerical results in other literatures and the contrast verifies the reliability of this method. The method is suitable for the analysis of suspension bridges, cargo ropeways and other various types of cable structures.