FORM-FINDING OF PRESTRESSED CABLE AND MEMBRANE STRUCTURES BY DYNAMIC RELAXATION

The dynamic relaxation method is applied to the form-finding of prestressed cable and membrane structures. In this paper a plane is used as the initial unequilibrium shape and membrane elements are used which are different from the pseudo cable elements used in the open literature. In this way an equilibrium shape analysis method of cable and membrane structures is developed. Numerical examples show that the form-finding method which is the same as static and dynamic analysis method is simple and effective.