EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL STUDY OF AN ASYMMETRIC CATENARY WITH A SIMPLE LABORATORY SCALE MODEL

Cables are key elements in many types of engineering projects (bridges, walkways, pipes supports, electrical lines, etc), where they act as structural elements. Therefore, their study is an important aspect of Physics in Engineering Degrees. The following work is proposed with the aim of supporting the theoretical study carried out in the theoretical and problem solving sessions, and relating it to a subject from later courses, as well as to the future development of their professional career.
A cable in its equilibrium configuration can be considered as a rigid body. In order to calculate the acting forces, the methodology of statics of the rigid body is used. Depending on their use, cables can be studied as a parabolic or catenary model. To begin the study of this topic, the theoretical analysis is essential as a conceptual part previous to experimental study. Afterwards, experimental measures of a real scale model allow us to check if they fit with the results obtained from theoretical mathematical equations.
In this paper, an asymmetric catenary cable model of simple management and measurements is presented, so that the students carry out an experimental study in the laboratory. The real scale model also lets them to determine the mass center in an experimental way and compare the results with those calculated by using the mass geometry formulae.