Flexible bridge decks suspended by cable nets. A constrained form finding approach

The initial geometry of structures made of cables is steered by the cable tensioning forces. In a cable net the geometrical shape and the internal force distribution cannot be dealt as separate issues: the set of geometries defines also the feasible sets of the internal forces. During the last decades, many different approaches have been proposed to deal with the form finding of cable structures. The most efficient one is the so called Force Density Method (FDM), proposed by Schek, which allows to conforming cable nets for structural applications without requiring any further assumption, neither on the geometry, nor on the material properties. An Extension of the Force Density Method, the EFDM, makes it possible to set conditions in terms of fixed nodal reactions or, in other words, to fix the position of a certain number of nodes and, at the same time, to impose the intensity of the reaction forces. Through such an extension the EFDM enables us to deal with form finding problems of cable nets subjected to given constraints and in particular to treat mixed structures, made of cables and struts. In this paper we consider cable nets interacting with members having flexural behaviour. For a given cable assembly and for a given loading condition, aim of this work is to find that particular pretensioning system which replaces both the static and the kinematic functions of the inner reactions of a flexural elastic continuous beam. It is, for instance, the case of the bridge decks suspended by cables, shaped in various forms. The specialization of the EFDM to this type of problem is presented and a progressive set of examples shows the efficiency and the versatility of this approach in contributing to the design of new creative forms.