RAM | STAAD Forum - Catenary Cable
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Question

Catenary Cable

by
Ryan Freund
Expert

A few questions regarding a cable spanning between two pin supports. 

I watched a couple helpful videos:

2021-02 (February) SIG Workshop – Structural for APAC:Advanced Cable Analysis in STAAD.Pro

2020-17 (June) SIG Workshop: STAAD Session: Applications of Non-Linear Cable Analysis

In both of these videos he models the catenary cable as a segmented member. Is there any reason for this? Could he have just used a straight member spanning from support to support. Or a straight segmented member spanning from support to support? Was it necessary to model some sort of initial sag? Or is there accuracy gained in segmenting the member?

For a single member cable spanning between two pinned supports I get a converging result when using the advanced solver but not using the basic non-linear solver. Any idea on why that would be? Do I need to use a segmented member or provide some initial sag?

For a two member (2 segments) cable spanning between two pinned supports I get converging results for both, but slightly different results. 

Topics: STAAD.Pro cable