A Method to Determine the Tightening Sequence for Standing Rigging of a Mast

The article proposes an alternative method to determine the sequence of generation of pre-tension forces in standing rigging of a mast. The proposed approach has been verified on both a virtual simulation experiment and laboratory tests. In this method, the desired tension values are obtained using the influence matrix which allows to calculate the effect of tension change in an individual rope on the tension distribution in the remaining ropes in the system. Unlike the presently used method, in which the desired tension distribution is obtained in a long-lasting iterative process burdened with relatively large errors of final values, the proposed method makes it possible to achieve the final tension distribution in a finite number of steps. In the case of FEM analyses, the new method can be a useful tool for determining an arbitrary distribution of tension forces in ropes via solving a system of linear equations.