Wide-span cable structures

Abstract

In recent years, the application of cable structures in buildings has gained huge popularities. Although cable technology has been established since the 1950s, there is suddenly a surge in the number of its building application starting in the late 90s. This phenomenon is attributed to the recent advances in computational form finding, analysis and construction simulation, which make the design and construction of cable structures simpler and more economical. Although cable structures have been employed for different building applications, this thesis will concentrate only on the use of cable structures in wide span system. Five cable systems: simply suspended cables, pretensioned cable beams, pretensioned cable nets, tensioned straight cable nets and tensegric shells are studied for their mechanical properties and suitability for wide span uses. A case study is presented at the end of each system's description to illustrate its possible application. The paper will then conclude with a presentation of a general design methodology of a cable structure.