Vibration and large deflection of a beam-cable system
This paper studies the large-deflection static and dynamic characteristics of a slender prismatic cantilevered beam loaded by a cable attached at the tip and terminating near the base. This system has a direct application to square solar-sail structures where the structural booms could be designed to buckle in order to supply tension loading in the sail membrane. The beam and cable configuration can be considered a two-dimensional analogy of this three-dimensional problem. The equilibrium and vibration properties are investigated using three methods: numerical integration of the governing equations using a shooting method; finite element analysis using ABAQUS; and experiments using a laser vibrometer. Two different cable attachment points are considered. Significant results show a buckling load much higher than for a cantilever beam under axial end load, and sensitivity of the vibration frequencies near the buckling load. In addition, anomalies discovered while analyzing the system using the finite element method are discussed. Copyright © 2005 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.
