Proceedings of the 16th International Conference

on Computational and Mathematical Methods

in Science and Engineering, CMMSE 2016
48 July, 2016.

Numerical simulation of cable truss systems using meshfree

RBF method
Stanislav Simonenko1 , Jose Antonio Loya1 , Marcos Rodriguez Millan1
and Philippe Angot2
1

Mecanica de Medios Continuos y Teoria de Estructuras, Universidad Carlos III de

Madrid
2

Institut des Mathmatiques de Marseille, Universite de Marseille

emails: stan@bridgemaths.net, jloya@ing.uc3m.es, mrmillan@ing.uc3m.es,

philippe.angot@univ-amu.fr

Abstract
This is an abstract submitted for CMMSE 2016. We are a group of authors, working
on hanging bridge engineering, and using meshfree methods for hanging truss analysis.
Our aim is to show the use of the library we develop and its application for hanging
bridge design.

Introduction

The exact analysis of cable truss systems under a load function (continuous or not) has
a great practical interest - overall, in hanging bridge engineering. The traditional finite
elements methods, used in practice for hanging trusses of bridges, have following disadvantages:
The section of cables, small, compared to characteristical dimensions of the structure,
requires the use of big number of tiny elements, regardless of wether the cable system is
analyzed with the whole structure, or separately. This follows to a great computational
cost and difficult contact modelling between parts of hanging truss.
The mesh generation for a hanging structure modeling requires a choice: uniform 3D
elements, or a ficticious domain approach, making some elements bidimensional. This
case modifies the initial problem, and is suitable only for

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MESHFREE CABLE SYSTEMS MODELING

Statically undefined structures (including many hanging trusses used in actual civil
engineering) cannot be trated using finite elements methods, that is why FEM in
hanging structures analysis has limited use for stayed and continuous load monocable
structures.
Meshfree methods, applied to hanging bridge engineering, offer an alternative that
avoids common problems. First, a structure is considered as a point cloud, with specific
boundary conditions. Second, a immersed geometry approach allows to define any systems
of loads on the cable system (that is usefull for practical cases of normalized analysis).
The mentionned algorithms are integrated into the UC3M-lib modeling library.

Meshfree RBF method for partial differential equations

solving

A modelled geometry is considered is a set of nodes X = {~x1 , . . . , ~xM } and Xb =

{~xM +1 , . . . , ~xN } , in a computational domain . We consider L a spatial differential
operator, u(~x) a function on , with a PDE in the domain:
(
Lu(~x) = f (~x) inside the domain
(1)
Bu(~x) = g(~x) on the boundary
We consider s(~x) the approximation of the function u(~x) in the domain , on the given
set of nodes, constructed as a combination of some radial basis functions i (~x), though
u(~x) ' s(~x) =

N
X

i i (~x)

(2)

i=1

where i is the respective weight of each basis function. The

~ i weights vector is defined
by solving the matricial equation of colocation of known function values in centers uD (that
is, in our case, Dirichlet boundary conditions of simulation):

~ = A1 ~uD

(3)

where A
p is the colocation matrix. For radial basis function we may chose Multiquadric
((~x, ~y ) = k~x, ~y k + c3 ), or, for the practical bridge engineering issues the most appropriate
is the Power Spline ((~x, ~y ) = (k~x, ~y k)c ). In both cases the variable c R+ is called shape
parameter. The shape parameter allows getting the approximation method accurate, and
its choice is important. A specific algorithm of its choice for a cable truss is given in the
respective part.

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ISBN: 978-84-608-6082-2

J. LOYA, M. RODRIGUEZ, S. SIMONENKO, P. ANGOT

Elastodynamic problem: single cable

The general formulation of an elastodynamic problem is the following [1]. At a time iteration
ti the relation between the deformation and the stress in the system on the domain is

1
0
0
0
1
1

1
0
0
0
1
1

1
0
0
0
E(1 )
1 1

~ =
(4)
12
0
~
0
0
0
0

(1 + )(1 2)
2(1)

12
0
0
0
0
0
2(1)
12
0
0
0
0
0
2(1)
and on the boundary the Dirichlet boundary conditions are ~ = ~B . For the resolution the spacial variables are separated, and each is approximated as:

u(~x) = k=1 ak (k~x ~xk k, cu )

N b (k~
(5)
x ~xk k, cv )
v(~x) = k=1
k

N
w(~x) = k=1 ck (k~x ~xk k, cw )
The equation 4 is solved locally on given stencils, in aim to optimize the shape parameter, by the following algorithm [2] on shape parameters of each dimension:
1. Stencil check: first, the stencil is considered as equal to domain.
2. Data points check: by loop on data points we make stencils of at least 3 of them.
Neighborhood nodes are added to the stencil, to avoid the non-overlapping of the
stencils on the domain.
3. Error vectors construction The shape parameter c = cx,y,z is considered as a parsed
variable. The error vector of the stencil Si with nd nodes is computed as

E1 ,
.
~ =
E
(6)
..
End
where Ej = fj Ij (x~j ), and Ij is the interpolation function on the reduced stencil
Si \ (~xj , fj ). Here is the necessity of having enough data points in the stencil. Thus,
~
the error vector is the function of shape parameter E(c).
~
4. Minimizing error on the stencil by finding cmin to minimize kE(c)k.
The particularity of a cable modeling are an imposed load and displacement on several
nodes, and the Youngs modulus as a function of displacement. Graphical results for a cable
of a unitary length, released after a load on a moment 0, are shown as following:

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MESHFREE CABLE SYSTEMS MODELING

(a) t = 0.0

(b) t = 0.03

(c) t = 0.06

(d) t = 0.09

(e) t = 0.12

(f) t = 0.15

Figure 1: Dynamic simulation using global method with GA RBF of a cable, submited to
a force P = 100 that is released at t = 0. The cable starts oscillations.

Hanging truss modeling using fictitious domain approach

A hanging truss is a semi-solid system, using rods (cables) and nodes, connecting them.
The number of unknown reactions is computed as
R = 2r2 + 4r 3 + 2(m 1)rm

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(7)

ISBN: 978-84-608-6082-2

J. LOYA, M. RODRIGUEZ, S. SIMONENKO, P. ANGOT

So, for a system composed of n rods, 3(n 1) static equations can be composed,
containing R unknown reactions. In case when R > 3(n 1) the system is statically
undefined. In this case areas containing 3 rods are considered as fictitious domains and the
problem is expanded to them.
Two algorithms are used in the numerical simulation:
Stencil selection: the general loop on all nodes separates the cable rods, i.e. distances between nodes, and defines their characteristic diameter. The diameter is used
to define contact conditions, if necessary.
Fictitious domain definition: the 3-cables systems with at least 2 attach points
may be considered as fictitious domain, with the boundary, delimited by these cables. It allows us the uniformization of properties, such as Youngs modulus, and a
computation of the sub-truss as of a solid.
For a point ~x in the computation domain was defined the biggest sphere radius,
that do not contain nodes, laying in other cylinders, that one formed by ~x and the main
direction of his neighbors. The main direction of his neighbors was defined by vector, where
the concentration of neighbor nodes were maximal.
The numerical experiment was carried out in the following order: first, the load was
placed in the point F of a simple X-truss, at time t = 0 it was released. Then 10 iterations
with the step t = 0.05 were done. The results are presented on the figures 2a - 2d.
In the case of parallel computing sensors we also placed near the F point for capturing
displacement.

References
[1] S. Simonenko, V. Bayona, M. Kindelan , Optimal shape parameter for the solution
of elastostatic problems with the RBF method, J. Eng. Math. 85(1) (2014) 115-129
[2] S. Rippa, An algorithm for selecting a good value for the parameter c in radial basis
function interpolation, Adv. Comp. Math. 11(2-3) (1999) 193-210
[3] V. K. Kachurin, A. V. Bragin, B. G. Erunov, Hanging bridges design, KTP
Editions (2012)
[4] B. Adams, M. Ovsjanikov, M. Wand, Meshless modeling of deformable shapes and
their motion, SCA 2008 Proceedings (2008)
[5] L. Liao and B. Du, Finite Element Analysis of Cable truss Structures, 51st
AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Struct. and Mat. Conf. (2010)

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MESHFREE CABLE SYSTEMS MODELING

(a) t = 0.0

(b) t = 0.05

(c) t = 0.15

(d) t = 0.25

Figure 2: Results of dynamic parallel simulation using meshfree RBF method of a hanging
truss, initially submitted to a force and released at t = 0. The displacements on this and
following images witness a vertical oscillation, but without entering in second degree eigen
modes.
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ISBN: 978-84-608-6082-2