Failure mechanisms in spiral strands under cyclic flexural loading close to terminations

Summary

The paper presents the results of bending fatigue tests on a two layer spiral strand pretensioned with fixed end conditions. The cyclic plane bending deformation produced by an alternating transverse displacement is localised near the end fittings leading to interwire fretting fatigue damage··due to the combination of bending strains with friction contact stresses. Failure mechanisms related to the interwire contact conditions in high cycle fatigue regime have been analysed for correlation with the recorded sequence of the number and spatial distribution of wire failures.

Author(s): D. Siegert, P. Brevet and J. Royer