Determination of the Strain-Free Configuration of Multispan Cable

For building a reasonable finite element geometric model, a method is proposed to determine the strain-free configuration of the multispan cable. The geometric conditions (the end conditions and the unstretched length conditions) as constraints for the configuration of multispan cable are given. Additionally, asymptotic static equilibrium conditions are given for determining the asymptotic shape of the multispan cable. By solving these constraint equations, a set of parameters are determined and then the strain-free configuration of multispan cable is determined. The method reported in this paper provides a technique for building reasonable FEA geometric model of multispan cables. Finally, a three-span cable is taken as example to illustrate the effectiveness of the method, and the computed results are validated via the software ADINA.