Home > categories > Hardware > Wire > Calculate tension in 3 wires?
Question:

Calculate tension in 3 wires?

A load of 125 kip is being held by 3 wires all going up. The Wire one goes straight from the load to the horizontal. Wire 2 and 3 form a V on top of wire 1 and are 30 degrees from wire 1. This is a 2-D problem.

Answer:

You need to use summation of forces. Wires 1 and 2 are gonna have the same tension on them, just in opposite directions. so in the x direction, Fx=125cos(30)+125cos(150) (the vertical wire doesn't contribute to the x-direction forces and I choose 150 because the wire on the left really has an angle of 180-30 or 150) in the y direction, Fy=125sin(30)+125sin(150)+125sin(90) (The vertical wire is a 90 degree angle) Tension=sqrt( Fx^2 + Fy^2 )

Share to: