Non-linear displacement control of prestressed cable structures

Abstract

The shapes of the prestressed cable structures are sensitive to external errors/stimuli due to their lightweight and high flexibility. When the shape distortion is deemed unacceptable, adjustment of the nodal positions is needed. For structures of linear behaviour, the displacement control problem can be converted to an optimization question. Simulated annealing algorithm combined with a technique derived from linear force method is implemented to solve this optimization question. And then, based on the linear displacement control technique and the non-linear force method, an iteration procedure is proposed to achieve the non-linear displacement control of prestressed cable structures. Two numerical examples are conducted which show that the computational results of the non-linear control method are in well agreement with the target values, while there are considerable errors for the corresponding results of the linear control method.