Dynamics of elastic bodies prestressed by internal slipping cables

This paper examines a system consisting of a deformable body with a slipping cable in its interior. The cable may be employed both as an actuator and as a sensor for the body, thanks to the particular coupling arising between local cable strain and global body deformation provided by the cable slip. The system is analyzed by interpreting the coupling as a constraint with global nature exerted by the deformable body on the cable deformation. The descriptors of the reduced kinematics of the system are established and the formulation is developed according to the exact deformation theory. Successively, the problem is linearized in proximity of a known solution and the particular case of homogeneous, massless cable is presented. A simple but meaningful application is also reported.