Knitted shadecloth panels are often used to provide shade over playgrounds in schools and council areas.
These panels deflect much more than the stiffer coated fabrics we use in lightweight structures and sufficient clearance must be allowed for above slides, castles and other objects. It is also important that the actual area required to be shaded is calculated correctly allowing for the different seasons and time of day.
The following video represents the movements in a wind estimated to be about 60 kph. (Courtesy Peter Kneen)
In the video, the wind is blowing from the left (windward) to the right hand side (leeward). Careful observation indicates at some intervals the main panel has some high curvature (less tension) near the leeward edge cable.
One design approach is to estimate an additional drag force on the "wavy" shape and to resist the vast majority of this force by an additional load on the windward cable. This leads to the conclusion that at the two corners of the windward edge there will be a different cable tension from one side of the corner attachment to the next.
