Some aspects on the fatigue appraisal of large diameter wire ropes

RoundTable – ENDURANCE RESEARCH OF WIRE ROPE AND ITS PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS – Glasgow 1985

The larger diameter wire ropes of above 70 mm are being used increasingly in a wide variety of applications principally in civil engineering and oil related industries. The knowledge on the performance of such ropes when subjected to fluctuating loads is scarce. It is unreliable and potentially dangerous to extrapolate existing data on smaller diameter ropes to embrace larger diameter ropes. This paper reviews the facilities which are available for carrying out fatigue testing of large diameter ropes in Europe and the USA and describes the approach adopted by the National Engineering Laboratory on projects to examine some aspects of the behaviour of such ropes when subject to fluctuating loads.
Author: D.M. Waters