Identification of Cable Force in a System with Two Linked Bending Cables and Arbitrary Boundary Conditions

Abstract

The present study will develop a technique to determine the cable forces of two-bending cable networks with actual boundary conditions but without the repeated removals of the cross-tie. To assess the performance of the bridge, it is crucial to identify the current cable forces. The vibration technique is the most popular among the practical options because it is easy, quick, and affordable. Numerous researchers developed analytical and empirical formulas that consider boundary conditions, cable length, and bending rigidity in order to apply this method.   Nevertheless, the majority of the currently used methods for calculating cable forces are for single cables and are therefore inappropriate for cable networks. Engineers should remove the cross- before doing the field testing to assess the cable forces of the cable networks. To measure the cable forces of the cable networks, engineers should remove the cross-ties before conducting the field tests. However, the removal of cross ties will separate the cable network into two independent cables, which does not accurately represent how the cable network functions in practice. Therefore, this paper introduces a method to directly identify the cable tensions of a two-cable network without removing the cross-tie to save time and increase accuracy. This technique can estimate precisely the cable forces of the two-bending cable network with arbitrary boundary conditions with an error of less than 1.0 percent. The accuracy of the axial stiffness determination just lightly affects the accuracy of the cable force identification. Hence, the cross-tie axial stiffness can be determined approximately.