The steady motions of nonlinearly elastic and inextensible strings which are being drawn between two fixed points and are subject to a gravitational load are examined. It is shown that, dependent on the boundary conditions, constitutive equations and a reference drawing speed, multiple co-existant steady motions are possible in certain situations. Using a variational method, stability criteria are also established for some of these motions.

Issue Section:
Technical Papers
Topics:
Boundary-value problems, Cables, Constitutive equations, Stability, Stress, String, Variational techniques
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