A New Catenary Cable Element

Abstract

In this paper, a new explicit analytical solution of a single cable with two fixed points was presented by considering the equilibrium and geometric conditions of the cable mini-element. Combining the analytic solution and virtual work principle, the authors proposed a new two-node catenary cable element. By comparing the stiffness matrix of the new cable element and the two-node straight-line cable element, a simplified matrix form was presented and a nonlinear analysis procedure considering the influence of cable initial sag and force was given. This cable element has the advantage of high computing precision and simple expression compared with multi-node cable element and other cable elements. Two numerical examples illustrated the accuracy and reliability of the nonlinear element presented in this paper.

A new method to compute mechanical properties of a standing skyline for cable yarding

“…The use of such non-linear analytical catenary equation systems to describe cable configuration is not new. It is used in other disciplines than forestry, for example to compute the initial equilibrium of railway overheads [ 18 ] or in civil engineering [ 19 ]. But however none of these approaches is tailored to describe the behavior of forestry cable yarding systems.…”