Abstract

Recently long-span cable truss structures have been shaped in terms of a series of king post trusses

by weaving them with another king post trusses. The load path of cable truss structures has

something to do with their structural geometry. Moreover, the structural geometry has a dominant

effect on both structural efficiency and structural elegancy. Therefore, the understanding of load

path in association with structural shaping is an essential task for conceptual design of cable truss

structures. However, it becomes complicated for a long-span cable truss structures to proportion

dimensions of king post trusses because of the large number of structural members involved. The

main objective of this paper is to develop a framework for the parametric simulation toward the

exploration of design alternatives of cable truss structures considering the load path that are both

visually and structurally sound.

Keywords: cable truss, conceptual design, fink truss, inverted fink truss, graphic statics, redirection

of force, computer-aided design