Snap-through behaviour of cables in flexible structures

Abstract A study of the static and dynamic behaviour of flexible structures that exhibit the snap-through phenomenon is presented in this paper. A single cable example is presented to show that dynamic analysis can be an effective method of solving static snap-through problems. This paper presents an in-depth study of the behaviour of a guyed mast structure that has received attention in a number of previous elastic investigations [Peterson C. Abgespannte Maste und Schornsteine, Statik und Dynamik. Berlin: Wilhelm Ernst and Sohn Verlag, 1970; Argyris JH, Dunne PC, Angelopoulos T. Comp Meth Appl Mech Engng 1973;2:203–50; El-Katt MTH. Non-linear dynamic analysis of cable structures. PhD Thesis, UMIST, 1987]. The Williams toggle is an example of a rigid frame snap-through behaviour [Williams FW. Quart J Mech Appl Mech 1964;17:456–69]. Meek and Xue [Meek JL, Xue Q. Comput Meth Appl Mech Engng 1996;136:347–61] present a similar approach to the authors using dynamic analysis to trace the snap-through behaviour of rigid framed structures without having to follow the drooping load path. The very flexible guy snap-through response has not been previously reported.