CABLES

Are used to support suspension roofs, bridges and trolley wheels, guys for radio antennas, electrical
transmission lines and derricks.

The weight of the cable itself may be neglected depending on the magnitude of the applied forces. The
weight of the cable can be ignored if it is negligible compared to the applied loads.
The cable can be subjected to concentrated loads or distributed loads
It is assumed that the cable is perfectly flexible an inextensible. Thus, the cable offers no resistance to shear
or bending moment and therefore the force acting in the cable is always tangent to the cable at points along
its length.
Cable subjected to concentrated loads

With concentrated loads, the cable takes the form of several straight-lines segments subject to constant
tensile force.
The geometry of the cable should be known to obtain the unknowns. The geometry involves the angles, θ
between the straight lines and the horizontal lines the sags, yC and yD, and the lengths, L1, L2, L3, and
loadings P1 and P2.
Do you remember methods of joints?

EXAMPLE

Cable subjected to a uniform distributed load

Cables provide a very effective means of supporting the dead weight of girders or bridge decks having very
long spans. A suspension bridge is a typical example, in which the deck is suspended from the cable using
a series of close and equally spaced hangers.

First determine the shape of the cable subjected to uniform horizontally distributed load w0. The x,y axes
have their origin located at the lowest point on the cable, such that the slope is zero at this point.
Approach 1
Ignoring the weight of the cable(parabola)
OR
Recall?

Considering the weight of the cable (catenary)

Summary
Approach 2
In the handout