STATIC ANALYSIS OF CABLE NETWORKS AND THEIR SUPPORTING STRUCTURES

A nonlinear static analysis method for cable structures, particularly emphasizing cable networks, is presented. Cable strains are measured f rom the current geometry and compressed cables are analytically disass embled with the construction of the equilibrium equation and the stiff ness matrix. Finite rotations of cable intersections, referred to as n odes, and cable elements passing through more than two nodes are inclu ded in the formulation. An integrated analysis with a linear finite el ement method is also presented to account for the elastic deformations of supporting structures for the cable networks. The formulation is p rogrammed for a CRAY2 supercomputer using parallel processing to solve the linear equations. Applications of the method used for mesh antenn a development are also presented.