Wire Fractures and Weakening of Wire Ropes

RoundTable – WIRE ROPE DISCARD CRITERIA - Zurich 1989

This paper presents the results of investigations intended to quantify the relations between the number of broken outside wires, their effective length and the residual strength of rope. These investigations involve testing the tensile rope strength for two types of rope specimens: ropes with a random distribution of broken wires as developed during rope bending fatique tests, and (2) new ropes with outside wire breaks introduced in the laboratory. The results of tests were compared with theoretically calculated values assuming different effective lengths of fractured wires and various stress distributions acting in the wires.

Author: W. Cholewa