A parabolic cable element for static analysis of cable structures

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a finite element formulation of enhanced two‐node parabolic cable element for the static analysis of cable structures. Design/methodology/approach Unlike the assumed polynomial displacement interpolation functions, the present approach uses the analytical cable dynamic stiffness matrix to obtain the explicit expression of the static stiffness matrix of an inclined sagging cable by setting the frequency at zero. The Newton‐Raphson‐based iterative method is used to obtain the solution. Findings It is demonstrated that the present results agree well with those obtained from the nonlinear analytical theory of a parabolic cable and previous reported methods in the literature. Originality/value This paper proposes a two‐node parabolic cable element. For comparable accuracy with the truss element method, fewer numbers of such cable elements are needed.