Cables and Cable Systems

A cable is the simplest continuous underconstrained structural system. Its analytical model is a flexible wire, or a fiber, i.e., a perfectly flexible structural element capable of resisting only one type of force, axial tension. A cable is a variant system, with the exception of a rectilinear configuration with both ends fixed, when it is quasi-variant. The role of the cable as a structural component in engineering applications is diverse and growing. One of the reasons is the very logic of technical progress, resulting in an ever-increasing materials strength. As a matter of principle, tension is the only type of stress fully capitalizing on this trend. The cable also serves as an analytical model for a membrane in a uniaxial stress state. This can be either a wrinkling membrane or a membrane in a state of plane strain, like a membrane trough under a hydrostatic load considered in Section 1.