Cable Spring Constants for Guyed Tower Analysis

In current procedures for the structural analysis of guyed towers the effects of the guys on the tower displacements are estimated by determining the guy force on the tower with the tower fixed (guy preload) and the change in this force as the tower displaces (guy spring constant). With the introduction of very tall towers, of new tower applications offshore, and of synthetic guys, the analysis of the guy as uniformly loaded and linearly elastic becomes inadequate for describing the actual environmental loadings and guy properties. In this paper new formulas are developed for calculating guy cable preloads and spring constants. The formulas are evolved for arbitrarily loaded guys containing any number of discrete masses and having arbitrary constitutive relations. The calculations of guy preloads and spring constants from these formulas are demonstrated by numerical examples.