FINITE MEMBER-CABLE ELEMENT METHOD FOR NONLINEAR ANALYSIS OF CABLE DOMES

Cable dome is a large deformation composite structure consisted of flexible cables.Its analysis is a geometric nonlinear problem and is difficult in its solution.In thes paper, a mixedfinite element model combining the three-node isoparametric cable elements and straight member elements was presented based on the structural characters of cable domes and the nonlinear element method was applied. Based on the Lagrangian coordinates and the virtual displacement principle, the large deflection stiffness matrices of space member and cable elements were derived,and the nonlinear incremental equilibriUm equation of cable domes was established. Using the Newton-Raphson method,one example was analyzed, and the result showed that the model presented in this paper was accurate and efficient for nonlinear static analysis of cable domes.