Buckling Of Ring-Plane Cable Net Structure

The ability of Cable Structure to cover large spans without intermediate supports and to carry heavy loads, much greater than their self-weight, simulated the interest of the engineers and architects. The demand for this kind of structure increased with the development of computers and numerical methods for solving large systems of nonlinear equations. These structures are very stable and efficient, since the loads are transfered through tension of the cables, usually made of high-strength steel. The material has thus been made full use. Moreover, with their unusual forms they differ from all other conventional structures. This can make them very elegant.Ring-Plane Cable Net Structure can be treated as a special case of Cable Structure. One characteristics of the structure is that the cable net is plane which makes it easily deformable. A small load can give rise to large deformation of the cable net and great forces in the cables. It is a disadvantage for the supporting ring which governs the ultimate load carrying capability of the Ring-Plane Cable Net Structure. In this paper the main objective is to investigate buckling of the supporting ring using nonlinear finite element method. The imperfection of structure, stiffness of the cable net, prestress in the cable net are covered in the study. The paper includes the following three parts as below:1. The in-plane buckling of Ring Structure under uniform pressure, radial concentrated forces, orthogonal forces, radial cable forces and under orthogonal cable forces.2. The in-plane buckling of Ring Structure under radial cable forces and orthogonal cable forces.3. The out-of-plane buckling of Ring Structure under radial cable forces and orthogonal cable forces.4. The out-of-plane buckling of Hung Ring-Plane Cable Net Structure under vertical load.