Wire ropes under fluctuating tension and bending

Technical Meeting SAFETY, ACCEPTANCE AND DISCARD OF WIRE ROPES – Nantes 1991

In the last years a method was developed to calculate the endurance of wire ropes in rope drives /1, 2/. This method is based on a statistical evaluation of results of wire rope bending tests. In this method a first estimation is given to consider the influence of a combined fluctuating tension and bending on the wire rope endurance. Two types of bending and fluctuating tension exist. For the first type the bending and fluctuating tensile loads do not increase the amplitude of the wire stress mutually. This type is called independent loading by bending and fluctuating tension. The longitudinal wire stress in a wire rope under independent bending and tension is to be seen in Fig. 1a. After being bent over a sheave for a time the wire rope is stressed by a higher tensile load.

Author: K. Feyrer