Statics of elastic cables under 3D point forces

The catenary problem for elastic cables is extended to the case of uniformly distributed loads and point forces however oriented in space. The equilibrium equation is written in vector form and its solution, i.e. the deformed shape of the elastic cable, is obtained in closed form for the cases of uniformly distributed load, one point force and many point forces. The formulation is suitable to solve straightforwardly cable structure problems, as shown in the numerical applications.