CatenaryCurves

Thesenotesareaworkedexampleofleastsquaresdataanalysisforstudents. Background BruceHarvey,SSISUNSW 23/09/2011

Somebackgroundreadingaboutcatenarycurveswillyieldinformationsuchasthefollowing.Afreely hangingcable,suchasapowerlineorunloadedflyingfox,followsacatenarycurvewhensupported atitsendsandactedononlybyitsownweight.Thecatenarycurveisbasedonthecosh(hyperbolic cosine)function,similartoaparabola.Apparentlythefactthatthecurvefollowedbyacableorchain isnotaparabolawasprovenbyJungiusin1669.Generally,thelighterthecablethemorelikea parabolaitbecomes.Mostsuspensionbridgecablesfollowaparabolicnotcatenarycurve,because theysupportthebridgedeckbelow.Aninvertedcatenaryisanoptimalshapeforanarch. AtsurveycampsatBerrywesometimesmeasurethe350mflyingfoxcableandthenfitabestfit curvetothedatatodeterminethechainageandheightofthelowestpointonthecable,to investigatetheresidualsforeachpointcomparedtothebestfitcurve,andthentodeterminethe clearancetothegroundbeneaththecable.In2011duetoverywetweatherwemeasureda30m electricalextensioncordhanginginanindoorbasketballcourt.FromtheSokkiareflectorlesstotal stationobservationswedeterminedheightandchainagealongthecableforabouttwentypoints. Coordinatesforthreepointsaretheminimumrequiredtoprovideauniquesolutionwithno redundancy. Dataset In2011onegroupobserved26pointsalongthecentrelineofthecable.The ENcoordinatesoftheirpointswereconvertedtochainagealongthecord. ChainagecanbethoughtofasthexaxisandHeightastheyaxisofthedata. Thisdatawillbeusedforworkedexamplesofthevarioussolutions presentedbelow.Notethegraphbelowisnottoscale.

2011BHarvey,SSISUNSW

Solution1,spreadsheetpolynomialtrendline Iwontgointomuchdetailforthismethodbecausetherearebettermethodslater.Onewaytofita parabolainaMSExcelspreadsheetistoinsertanxyscatterchart,clickonit,thenChartTools| Layout|Trendline|Polynomial|Order2... Theresultdisplayedis y=0.0074x20.2115x+10.814 Wherexarethechainages,andyaretheheights(allinmetres). Ifwesubstituteourchainagevaluesintotheequationthecalculatedyvaluecanbecomparedwith themeasuredheights.Thedifferencesareourresiduals.Ifyoudothatwiththedatayouwillsee thattheresidualsgrowtoabout20mmneartheendofthecurveeventhoughweexpectresidualsof onlyafewmm.Thereasonisthatthedisplayedcoefficientsintheequationdonotrevealenough decimalplacesforourapplication.AbettersolutionwouldbeobtainedusingtheDATA|ANALYSIS| DATAANALYSISprocesswithMSExcelsAnalysisToolpackaddin. Solution2,parametricLSpolynomial Hereweusetheequationy=ax2+bx+candrearrangeitintoourmodelform:0=axi2+bxi+cyi Wherexiaretheobservedchainagesofthemeasuredpoints,yiaretheobservedheightsofthe measuredpoints,andabcareparameters.Inthisparametricmodelthexvaluesaretreatedas errorfreeconstantsandtheyvaluesastheonlyobservation.Isetthestandarddeviationofthey valuesforallpointsto1mmandtreatthepointsasnotbeingcorrelated.SotheQmatrix,andthus thePmatrix,arebothdiagonal.Nextweformthe(omc)bvectorandthepartialderivatives,A matrix.HowevertosavecomputerspaceandthetimetakenforstudentstoenterthezerosintheQ orPmatrixwewillnotstoreoruseQorP.Insteadweusethetechniqueofdividingeachterminb andeachrowinAbythestandarddeviationofthatrelevantobservation.TheLeastSquaresmatrix calculationscanthenbesimplifiedfromN=ATPAanddx=(ATPA)1ATPbbydividingthetermsinAand bbysi.So,N=(A/s)T(A/s)anddx=N1(A/s)T(b/s) TolimitspaceIshowtheworkingforonlythefirstthreepoints.Thatshouldbeenoughforstudents tochecktheirworkasyouprocessthisdatayourself. Thetermsinb/sarecalculatedfrom=(yi(c+b*xi+a(xi)2))/si Usingthevaluesfromsolution1aboveasthestartingvaluesthentheb/svectorforthefirst3points is: 1.000 1.212 0.138 Thepartialderivativeofthemodelequationwithrespecttotheparameter,aisxi2 Thepartialderivativeofthemodelequationwithrespecttotheparameter,bisxi Thepartialderivativeofthemodelequationwithrespecttotheparameter,cis1 Withparametersintheordera,b,c,thetermsintheAmatrix,dividedbys,forthefirstthree observationsare: 0.0 0 1000 1641.0 1281 1000 8714.3 2952 1000 2011BHarvey,SSISUNSW

Thexvectorforthefirstiterationis 2.69E05 0.0000 0.0002 Weaddthesetothestartingvaluesanditeratethesolutionuntilthexvectoriscloseenoughto zeroforourpurposes.Thisyieldsadjustedvaluesoftheparametersas:0.0074269,0.21149, 10.81378.Theseagreewithoursolution1butshowmoredecimalplaces. TheQxmatrix(=N1)is 1.09E11 3E10 1.42E09 3E10 8.96E09 1.42E09 4.8E08 4.8E08 3.45E07

Fromthatwecanseethestandarddeviationsoftheparametersare:0.0000033,0.0001,0.0006and thecorrelationsbetweentheparametersare,ab=0.96,ac=0.73,bc=0.86.Thecorrelationsare high.Oursolution1methoddidnotyieldthestandarddeviationsandcorrelationsofthe parameters. Nextwecancalculatetheresidualsusingvi=(yi(c+b*xi+a(xi)2)).Thisformulaissimilartothe formulaforbi,buthasoppositesignandnotethatitusestheadjustedvaluesofabandc,notthe startingvalues.Theresidualsforthefirst3observationsare:0.001,0.001,0.000m.Alltheresiduals arelessthanabout3mm,exceptfortheoneatchainage9.5mwhichhasaresidualof14mm.Either thechainageorheightforthatpointisinerror.Weshouldlookatthestudentsrecordeddataand theirpreprocessingtoseeifwecanfindthefault.However,herewewillmerelydownweightthat observationwithaninputsof900mm.Recomputingthesolutionyieldsparametersandtheir standarddeviationsasa=0.00742000.0000033,b=0.21130.0001,andc=10.81400.0006. Wedividetheresidualsvbytheirstandarddeviations,andcalculatetheVarianceFactorVF. VF=(v/s)2/(nu)wheren=26pointsandu=3parameters.OurVFis1.579. Ifwewantedtoknowthechainageandheightofthelowestpointonthecurve,wenotethatthe lowestpointontheparaboliccurveisatdy/dx=0.Thatis,xL=b/2aandyL=axL2+bxL+c ForthisdataxL=14.241andyL=9.309whichseemsreasonableconsideringthegraphofxydata shownwiththedata.Actually,thesecoordinatesareforthecentreofthecable,sothebottomedge ofthecablewouldbelowerbysizeoftheradiusofthecable.Incidentally,notethatfromthegraph oftheoriginaldataitisnotpossibletoseetheresidualswiththenakedeye.Ifwewantthe standarddeviationofthexLandyLvaluesweneedtodopropagationofvariancecalculations.Try thatyourselfifyouusethismethod,otherwisethenextmethoddoesitforyou. Solution3,parametricLSpolynomialwithlowestpointparameters Theequationofaparabolacanalsobeexpressedas:Yi=YL+A(XiXL)
2

whereXiisthehorizontalcoordinateofapoint(likechainage),Yiistheheightofthepoint,YListhe heightofthelowestpointonthecurve,XListhexcoordinateofthelowestpointonthecurve,andA isacoefficientdescribingtheshapeofthecurve.Sointhismethodthethreeparametersincludethe twocoordinatesofthelowestpointonthecurve,whichismoremeaningfulandusefulthantheplain abccoefficientsofmethod1and2above.Asstartingvaluesfortheparameterswecouldlookatthe plotshownwiththedata,(letsuseXL=14andYL=9.3)orsimplyselectthepointwiththelowest observedheight.ThestartingvalueforAcouldbebasedonourprevioussolutionsorwecould 2011BHarvey,SSISUNSW

calculateitasfollows.IfweselectXL=14andYL=9.3andthenchooseanobservedpointonthe curve,saythefirstpoint(Xi=0,Yi=10.815)thenYi=YL+A(XiXL)2soA=(YiYL)/(XiXL)2=0.0077. Again,XiaretreatedasconstantsandYiasobservationstoallowtheparametricLSmethod.Alsowe dividebandAtermsbytheappropriatevalueofsi.Inthisexamplewewillcontinuewiths=1mm forallpointsexceptatXi=9.5whichwillhaves=900mmagaintodownweightit.Letsusestarting valuesof0.007forA,XL=14andYL=9.3. Thetermsinb/sarecalculatedfrom=(Yi(YL+A(XiXL)2))/si Thefirstthreetermsare: 143.000 121.589 99.592

Thepartialderivative/softhemodelequationwithrespecttotheparameter,Ais(XXL)2/s Thepartialderivative/softhemodelequationwithrespecttotheparameter,XLis2A(XXL)/s Thepartialderivative/softhemodelequationwithrespecttotheparameter,YLis1/s WithparametersintheorderA,YL,XLthefirstthreerowsofA/sare: 196000.0 1000. 196.00 161773.0 1000. 178.07 122058.3 1000. 154.67 Weiteratethesolutionuntilthexvectoriscloseenoughtozeroforourpurposes.Thisyields adjustedvaluesoftheparametersas:A=0.007420,YL=9.3091andXL=14.2414.Theirstandard deviations(fromthesquarerootsofthediagonalsofN1matrix)are:0.000003,0.0003,and0.0017. Theresidualsvarecalculatedfromtheadjustedvaluesoftheparametersinsertedintheformula= (Yi(YL+A(XiXL)2)).Thencalculatev/sforeachobservationandtheVF,asdescribedintheprevious method.Theanswersarethesameasforthepreviousmethod,howeverthismethodgivesusthe valuesofXLandYLandtheirstandarddeviationsdirectly. FromtheQxmatrix,thecorrelationsbetweentheparametersare,AYL=0.72,AXL=0.13,YLXL= 0.08.Thesecorrelationsarelowandmuchbetterthanthoseinoursolution2method.Thismethod isthusmorenumericallystableaswellasgivingusmoreusefulparametersdirectly. Solution4,parametricLScatenarycurvewithlowestpointparameters Theequationofacatenarycanbeexpressedinafewdifferentforms.Hereweuse: Yi=YL+B(cosh((XiXL)/B)1) whereXiisthehorizontalcoordinateofapoint(likechainage),Yiistheheightofthepoint,YListhe heightofthelowestpointonthecurve,XListhexcoordinateofthelowestpointonthecurve,andB isacoefficientdescribingtheshapeofthecurvewherealargerBindicatesaflattercurve.Notethat thecoefficientBinthisequationisusuallyconsiderablydifferenttothecoefficientAintheparabola equation.[Somesurveyorsmaynothaveseenthecoshfunctionsincetheretimeatuniversityitis availableinspreadsheets.]

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ThestartingvalueforBcanbecalculatedasfollows.IfweselectXL=14andYL=9.3andthenchoose anobservedpointonthecurve,saythefirstpoint(Xi=0,Yi=10.815)thenYi=YL+B(cosh((XiXL)/B)1) soB=65(MSExcelssolverhelpstofindB). Ifweassumethatthecatenaryandparabolaareveryclosethen:B(cosh(1/B)1)A Again,XiaretreatedasconstantsandYiasobservationstoallowtheparametricLSmethod.Alsowe dividebandAtermsbytheappropriatevalueofsi.Inthisexamplewewillcontinuewiths=1mm forallpointsexceptatXi=9.5whichwillhaves=900mmagaintodownweightit.Letsusestarting valuesof65forB,XL=14andYL=9.3. Thetermsinb/sarecalculatedfrom=(Yi(YL+B(cosh((XiXL)/B)1)))/si Thefirstthreetermsare: 1.470 5.617 12.827 Thepartialderivativesdividedbys,ofthemodelequationwithrespecttotheparametersare: (F/B)/s=(COSH((XiXL)/B)1SINH((XiXL)/B)*(XiXL)/B)/s (F/XL)/s=SINH((XiXL)/B)/s (F/YL)/s=1/s WithparametersintheorderB,YL,XLthefirstthreerowsofA/sare: 23.465 1000 217.05 19.328 1000 196.93 14.549 1000 170.79 Weiteratethesolutionuntilthexvectoriscloseenoughtozeroforourpurposes.Thisyields adjustedvaluesoftheparametersas:B=67.60,YL=9.3096mandXL=14.2408m.Theirstandard deviations(fromthesquarerootsofthediagonalsofN1matrix)are:0.03,0.0003mheight,and 0.0017mchainage.Becausethecurveisflatwecandeterminetheheightofthelowestpointmore preciselythanitschainage. Notethatthecoordinatesofthelowestpointonthebestfitcatenarycurveareverysimilartothose ofthebestfitparabola.Thedifferences(0.5mmand0.5mminchainageandheight)arelessthanthe standarddeviationsofthoseparameters. Theresidualsvarecalculatedfromtheadjustedvaluesoftheparametersinsertedintheformula vi=(Yi(YL+B(cosh((XiXL)/B)1)).Thencalculatev/sforeachobservationandtheVF,as describedinthepreviousmethod.Thelargestvis3mm(apartfromtheoutlierat9.5mchainage whichhasaresidualof15mm).Thevandv/sarevirtuallythesameasfortheparabolamethods, howeverthiscatenarymethodgivesusaVFof1.35comparedtotheparabolas1.58whichindicates thatthecatenarycurvefitsthedataslightlybetterthantheparabolaandhasslightlysmaller residuals. FromtheQxmatrix,thecorrelationsbetweentheparametersare,BYL=0.72,BXL=0.13,YLXL= 0.08.Thesecorrelationsarelowandmuchbetterthanthoseinoursolution2method.Thismethod isthusmorenumericallystablethanthesimpleparabolawithabccoefficients,aswellasgivingus moreusefulparametersdirectly. 2011BHarvey,SSISUNSW 5

Comparisonoftheresidualsfromthetwotypesofcurvefit Solution5,combinedmethodLSpolynomialwithlowestpointparameters

Insolution3weassumedtheXvalueswereerrorfree,whichallowedustousetheparametric methodbecauseeachpointgeneratesoneequationwithonlyoneobservedvalueinit.Nowwe applythecombinedmethodofLeastSquaresandtreatbothXandYvaluesasobservations.Wewill alsoomittheoutlierobservationatchainage9.5,sothereare25observedpointsand50 observationsandwewilluseandinputstandarddeviationof1mmforbothchainageandheight values. Thebasicmodelequationis:YiYLA(XiXL)2=0 Theobservations,inorderare:Y1,X1,Y2,X2, Theparameters,inorderare:A,YL,XL Thestartingvaluesoftheparametersare:A=0.0077,YL=9.3andXL=14.(asinourprevious solution3). HerewewillnotdividebandAtermsbysi,insteadwewillformthefullQmatrixeventhoughitis diagonalinthiscase.Inthisexamplewewillcontinuewiths=1mm Thetermsinbarecalculatedfrom=F(Xa,l)=(YiYLA(XiXL)2) Thefirstthreetermsare: 0.006 0.008 0.014

Thepartialderivativeofthemodelequationwithrespecttotheparameter,Ais(XXL)2 Thepartialderivativeofthemodelequationwithrespecttotheparameter,YLis1 Thepartialderivativeofthemodelequationwithrespecttotheparameter,XLis2A(XXL) WithparametersintheorderA,YL,XLthefirstthreerowsoftheAmatrix,whichhas25rowsand3 columns,are: 2011BHarvey,SSISUNSW 6

 196.00 1 0.216 161.77 1 0.196 122.06 1 0.170 ForthecombinedLSmethodwecalculateaBmatrix,B=F/. ThederivativeofthemodelequationwithrespecttoaYobservation=1 ThederivativeofthemodelequationforthefirstpointwithrespecttoobservationX1=2A(X1XL) Manyofthederivativesare0.ThefirstthreerowsoftheBmatrix,whichhas25rowsand50 columns,are: 1 0.2156 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ... 0 0 1 0.1959 0 0 0 0 0 ... 0 0 0 0 1 0.1701 0 0 0 ... TheQmatrixhas50rowsand50columns.Thediagonalsarevariancesoftheobservations,inthis example,0.0012.The(BQBT)1matrixhas25rowsand25columns,itcanthenbeformedbymatrix algebra.Thetoplefthandcornerof(BQBT)1is: 955581. 0 0 0 963051. 0 0 0 971867. TheQxmatrixhas3rowsand3columns,itcanthenbecalculatedfromQx=(AT(BQBT)1A)1.Forthis firstiterationQxis: 1.14E11 7.07E10 3.66E10 7.07E10 8.42E08 2.72E08 3.66E10 2.72E08 2.79E06 ThexvectoriscalculatedfromQx(AT(BQBT)1b)as: 0.000280 0.0096 0.2326 Weiteratethesolutionuntilthexvectoriscloseenoughtozeroforourpurposes.Thisyields adjustedvaluesoftheparametersas:A=0.007420,YL=9.3092andXL=14.2414.Theirstandard deviations(fromthesquarerootsofthediagonalsofQxmatrix)are:0.000003,0.0003,and0.0017. Boththeadjustedvaluesandtheirstandarddeviationsareveryclosetothevaluesfromsolution3. Theresidualsvinthecombinedmethodarecalculatedfromtheformulav=QBT(BQBT)1(Axb). Thereare50observations,sothereare50valuesinthevvector.Ifweusethelastiterationthenx arevirtuallyzeroandweusebfromthelastiteration.Wecanthencalculatev/sforeach observationandtheVF.Thefirstfewvandv/stermsare: Residuals v X1 0.0009 Y1 0.0002 X2 0.0014 v/s 0.92 0.19 1.44

VF=vTPv/(neu)=35.71/(503)=0.76 2011BHarvey,SSISUNSW

NoticethattheVF(andthustheresiduals)isconsiderablysmallerwhenweusethecombinedLS method,comparedtotheparametricmethodbuttheanswersfortheparametersarevirtuallythe sameforbothmethods(forthisdataset).Thismeansthatthedatafitsthecurvebetterthanwe thoughtwhenweusedtheparametricmethod.Thestandarddeviationsoftheobservationsare probably<1mm,andthestandarddeviationsoftheadjustedparametersfromthecombined methodarethusalsoslightlybetter. Theinterpretationofthisbestfitcurveissimilartothedifferencebetweenlinearregressionwhere theresidualsforeachpointareverticalonly,comparedtoalineofbestfitwherepointscanbe correctedacrossaswellasvertically. Solution6,combinedmethodLScatenarycurvewithlowestpointparameters Thissolutionisnotwrittenhere.Itisleftasanexerciseforstudentstocompletethemselves.The partialderivativesintheBmatrixneedtobederived,thesolutioncalculated,andtheresults comparedwiththeprevioussolutions. Summary Atleastforourdatasets,itcanbesaidthattheparabolaandcatenarycurvesyieldvery similarresults,withthecatenarycurvefittingthedataslightlybetterthantheparabola. Irecommendyoufitacurvewithparametersbeingthecoordinatesofthelowestpointon thecurveandaparameterforshape,inpreferencetoasimplesecondorderpolynomial. Youdonthavetoholdanypointsfixedinthesesolutions. Itisusefultocalculateandanalysetheresiduals,andVF. Itisusefultoincorporatestandarddeviationsofobservationsinaleastsquaresadjustment ofthedataratherthansimplytreatingeachpointasequalweight.Thatisbecauseitallows ustodownweightlowqualitypointsandtodeterminerealisticstandarddeviationsor confidenceintervalsofthederivedparameters. AcombinedLSmethodsolutionyieldssimilarparameters(forthisdataset)butfitsthedata betterwithsmallerresiduals. Furtherwork:Itwouldbeinterestingtotake3Ddataforpointsalongacable,withtheE,N, andHcoordinatesofeachpointbeingobtainedbyradiationwithatotalstationorlaser scannerandthecoordinateobservationsbeingcorrelated.Thebestfitcurvewouldalso needtodeterminethebearing/azimuthofthecable.

TutorialQuestions: A) 3pointquestion Asubsetofsomestudentdatais: X Y(Height) 2.134 24.637 16.876 22.694 28.624 24.698 Calculatethecoordinatesofthelowest 2011BHarvey,SSISUNSW

pointonthecurveifacatenarycurveisfittothedata.Similarly,calculatethecoordinatesofthe lowestpointonthecurveifaparabolaisfittothedata.Comparethedifferences. ThesolutioncanbefoundbyusingtheSolverFunctioninMSExceltosettheresidualsforallthree datapointsequationstozero.Alternatively,solveitbytheleastsquaresmethod. B) Adifferentdatasetwithoneendofthecableconsiderablyhigherthantheother

C(Chainage) H(CableHeight) 0.000 15.452 10.172 14.473 26.171 13.491 43.239 12.652 65.430 11.884 73.568 11.699 105.081 11.319 133.952 11.718 227.069 17.201 249.054 19.449 286.825 24.149 329.697 30.794 340.381 32.669

C) 3Ddata Pointsalongacablewereradiatedbyareflectorlesstotalstationfromasinglepoint.Calculatethe bestfitcurvebycalculatingthechainagesofpointsfromabestfitlineinplanviewandthenacurve fitinelevationview.Alternatively,solveforthebestfitcurvein3D.IfyouuseaLSsurveynetwork programinsimulationmodeyoucanevencalculatethecorrelationsbetweenthecoordinatesofthe points.

Direction, DMS 2400225 2371037 2333104 2284202 2204631 2093208 1955640 1861157 1752925 1581138 1405238 1332852 1265807 1233019 1193945 1151709 1131258 1112444 1102232 Horizontal Distance 12.487 11.489 10.487 9.451 8.242 7.181 6.496 6.288 6.267 6.726 8.061 9.082 10.397 11.318 12.632 14.643 15.870 17.137 17.958 Height Difference 5.000 4.637 4.285 3.940 3.559 3.228 2.982 2.859 2.770 2.679 2.694 2.776 2.928 3.069 3.305 3.749 4.068 4.439 4.698

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