Keywords: suspended cable roof, ice hockey stadium, pre-stressed cable network, diagnostics, corrosion, nonlinear static analysis, simulation sensitivity analysis, Monte-Carlo method, wind simulation, nonlinear dynamic analysis, reliability.

The most significant structure with a suspended cable roof in Slovakia, inspired by Nowicki's arena, is an ice hockey stadium in Presov, built in 1966. The suspended pre-stressed cable-roof structure of the ice hockey stadium was exposed to varying environmental conditions during its more than forty-four-year use and has undergone changes in stiffness, geometric and material properties.

Results obtained from the nonlinear static and dynamic behaviour analyses of the suspended cable network with the current properties determined through the diagnostics, metallographic analysis and tests are presented in this paper. Creep of cables (pre-stressing relaxation), corrosion and wind-induced vibration were the major sources of the introduced changes. The goal of the complex analysis was to investigate the behaviour of the cable structure with the current properties and obtain a realistic idea about its reliability.

By means of the microscopic metallographic analysis of the exposed cables of the structure, where they were in contact with condensed moisture for forty-four years, corrosion damage was observed. The smallest residual diameter of the wire of the investigated ropes was 3.81mm compared to the original 4.5mm. In the case of the load carrying cables, the average corrosion rate is 0.007 mm per year.

For determining the current properties of the materials tension tests of the steel spiral strands were performed and the characteristic values of ultimate tensile strength and Young's modulus were obtained. For determining the real geometry of the current shape of the hyperbolic parabolic cable network the geodetic measurements were performed and the current coordinates of the nodes of the cable network were obtained and used in further static and dynamic analyses.

From the results of the non-linear finite element static analysis more unfavourably characteristics of the response of the structure with the current properties compared to the original cable system may be viewed. In order to investigate the sensitivity of the behaviour of the suspended cable network to variable input properties the non-linear sensitivity simulation-based static analysis was performed. The direct use of the Monte Carlo technique was applied.

In order to improve the computational model for solving wind induced vibration and to determine the wind pressure and the shape factors of the wind for the cable structure over the elliptic ground plan, the three-dimensional model was developed using the ANSYS program [1]. The turbulent airflow in the two middle sections of the structure was investigated using the ANSYS program. The results confirmed the reliability of the cable roof structure with the current properties under static and dynamic loading conditions.

1

ANSYS, Inc., "Release documentation of Ansys 11.0", Southpointe, 275 Technology Drive, Canonsburg, 2005.

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