Form Finding of Asymmetric Cable Network Reflector with Flexible Ring Truss

Abstract

In this work, the form finding of an asymmetric cable network reflector is considered by taking into account the elastic deformation of the flexible ring truss. Firstly, by treating the boundary nodes as fixed nodes, the balance equations of the structure are transformed into linear equations using the force density method (FDM). Next, the genetic algorithm (GA) is used to find the force density values that satisfy the surface accuracy required to complete the form finding of a cable network reflector. Secondly, a design procedure is presented by incorporating the elastic deformation of the ring truss. Finally, using an iterative process, the coordinates of the boundary nodes are modified to repeat the first step to obtain better surface accuracy. Numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in comparison with the conventional method.