Theory and testing of cable structures and cable structural elements

The paper describes the theoretical and experimental results obtained by the investigation of the material characteristics of steel cable structural element, which behaves as nonlinear viscoelastic matter. The creep tests, the obtained creep curves, constitutive equations of the dependence of the cable strain on time and stress under nonlinear creep in the finite algebraical form as well as the numerical method for the solution of the kernel functions which represent the mechanical - physical cable properties are briefly presented. The methods of analysis of geometrically and materially nonlinear prestressed tension structures with rheological properties of response and the trends in nonlinear finite element analysis development are briefly described.