Measured stresses and bending stiffness of steel wire ropes

An expression for the bending stiffness of a rope is derived from the theoretical equations for wire stresses. Using experimentally derived values for wire stresses and bending stiffness, a "substitute value" for second moment of area is obtained, which accounts for friction and other non-linearities. These values are then compared with the sum of wire stiffnesses to show, for the example studied, an increase by a factor of either 10 or 7 times, depending an the method used.

Author: L. Wiek