Dynamic analysis of large displacement cable motion with experimental verification

Cables used in engineering applications may undergo large displacement motion when subjected to dynamic loads, particularly for cables with relatively low tension. As cables are much weaker in the out-of-plane motion than the in-plane motion, three-dimensional dynamic analysis is often necessary even when the excitation contains only a small out-of-plane component. This paper presents the dynamic analysis of three-dimensional cable motion, accounting for axial, flexural and torsional deformations as well as geometric non-linearity due to large displacements and rotations. The comprehensive study covers analytical formulation, numerical strategy based on an iterative finite difference scheme, and experimental verification by means of shaking table tests. A specific problem of cable motion due to support excitation is used to illustrate the asymmetry and sensitivity of the dynamic tension response associated with geometric non-linearity of large displacement cable motion. The shaking table tests validate the accuracy of the numerical results obtained for both two-dimensional and three-dimensional cases.