Analysis of Cables Suspended in Sheaves

Abstract

A new method for the analysis of cables that may roll on sheaves is presented. Implicit in this method is the use of a new pulley element which can model a finite length of cable supported somewhere along its length by a pulley. The pulley element simplifies computations by automatically adjusting the proportion of cable on each side of a sheave in order to maintain equilibrium. This is useful for converging to a static solution as well as tracking cable translations during a dynamic simulation. This paper describes the algorithms used by the pulley element and presents examples that utilize the element in static applications.