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London Eye Cantilevered Tension-Spoke Observation Wheel
120 m diameter observation wheel with 24 passenger capsules, inclined tubular A-frame support legs, circular hub spoke flanges (Ø 6.4 m), 3D bicycle-spoke cable triangulation, backstays, and boarding pier.
The London Eye (Millennium Wheel) is the world's tallest cantilevered observation wheel, suspended over the River Thames on a single side by a pair of 58 m inclined tubular steel A-frame legs anchored by heavy cable backstays. Rather than relying on a rigid lattice truss, the 120 m rim functions like a giant bicycle wheel, sustained entirely by tensioned spiral wire-rope cables radiating from a central spindle hub to 24 exterior passenger capsule nodes. WebCAE computes static rim sag under eccentric capsule gravity, A-frame compression, lateral wind drift, natural rocking modes, and out-of-plane wheel rim buckling margins.
1. Geometry & FEA Mesh
- •Geometry: 120 m outer rim diameter, central spindle hub at elevation 70 m, twin inclined tubular A-frame legs (Ø 2.0 m) anchored to Thames bank foundation caissons.
- •Tension spoke system: 64 high-strength pre-tensioned spiral wire-rope cable elements radiating in 3D triangulation between the two spindle hub rings and 24 rim node stations.
- •Rim & capsules: circular tubular chord rim (Ø 1.0 m) carrying 24 perimeter passenger capsules (40 kN each), backed by boarding pier platform quads.
- •Discretization: 242 nodes, 579 beam/cable elements, 48 MITC4 shell quads, 1,332 total DOFs with verified hub spindle kinematic compatibility.
2. Loads & Boundary Conditions
- •Fixed boundary conditions (all 6 DOFs constrained) at the 2 A-frame foundation leg bases and 2 cable backstay ground anchorages (z = 0).
- •Gravity loads including self-weight of steel framing and 24 passenger capsule point loads (40 kN each) applied along the rim circumference.
- •Lateral storm wind force (15 kN/node) acting perpendicular to the wheel plane simulating Thames estuary gales.
3. Simulation Results & Findings
- ✓Maximum static rim displacement |u| = 423 mm under combined eccentric passenger loading and lateral wind gust.
- ✓Fundamental natural frequency f₁ = 0.13 Hz represents lateral pendulum sway of the cantilevered wheel and pylon.
- ✓Linear elastic buckling factor λ₁ = 20.9 verifies high stability against out-of-plane buckling of the slender compressed rim and A-frame legs.
WebCAE delivers lightweight, accessible finite element modeling for landmark observation wheels, cable-spoke structures, and guyed towers, validating tension cable efficiency and aeroelastic frequencies directly in web browsers.
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- ✓Nonlinear Contact & Buckling (Kσ, MITC4, RBE2/RBE3)
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