Method for calculating catenary web spans
Abstract
The methods for calculating the catenary droop of a wire or cable hanging from fixed supports are well understood. For many common web materials, catenary droop or sag is not a consideration but for webs having a significant lineal mass density and low web tension, catenary droop may be significant. Applying the well known catenary equations to a web handling system with roller supports poses some interesting computational challenges and also some unexpected results. A computational method will be presented that can reliably solve the catenary equations for an arbitrary web span geometry. Catenary sag (from a straight line web path), web tension along the web span and the length of web hanging in the span can all be obtained from this solution method.
Citation
Dobbs, J. N., & Carlson, D. H. (2013, June). Method for calculating catenary web spans. Paper presented at the Twelfth International Conference on Web Handling (IWEB), Stillwater, OK.