Preventing disproportionate displacements in an annular crossed cable-truss structure

Abstract

Disproportionate displacements in prestressed mechanisms raise concerns widely. Component rupture can result in disproportionate displacements of a major part of prestressed mechanisms. In general, increasing the cross-sectional area of structural members will be of little effect to prevent this kind of failure. A new type of prestressed mechanism named annular crossed cable-truss structure has been proposed. The new configuration shows advantages in preventing disproportionate displacements. An annular crossed cable-truss structure $(R=\mathrm{68\; m}\text{)}$ is analyzed to evaluate the effect of the sudden rupture of a connection through the instantaneous component removal of the elements linked to it, using ANSYS/LS-DYNA. It is illustrated by the simulations that disproportionate displacements do not occur. Increasing the cross-sectional area of structural members with an appropriate amount can be an effective way to postpone failure of the structural members in which the axial force increases due to internal force redistribution and dynamic amplification effect. Hence, it can be concluded that the annular crossed cable-truss structure has an excellent performance with respect to hazards causing individual connections to fail.