Automated pipeline for the analysis of a scale-reduced steel cable net

Abstract

This paper proposes a digitally twinned experimental analysis of a scale-reduced laboratory-sized steel cable net subjected to vertical loading. The test is aimed at establishing automated pipelines of information and analysis between the measurements (displacements of nodes) and the numerical model of the cable net, which are seamlessly interconnected through a BIM model. These automated pipelines erect the frame of the development of a digital twin of the cable net with structural analysis purposes. For the sake of measurements, a terrestrial laser scanner is used. Displacements of the nodes are extracted using computational geometry tools. For the sake of analysis, a data-based numerical model is proposed to obtain the tensile state of the cables. Precisely understanding the force distribution along nets is a challenge at design, construction and operation stages. This research belongs to a vaster project related to the development of automated pipelines of information for European infrastructure in the form of digital twins. The outcome of this laboratory test results is of great use when developing similar automated pipelines of information in real sites including cable nets in roofs.