Working group 4: Wire rope in civil engineering

The "Wire ropes in civil engineering applications" working group was officially approved during the OIPEEC General Assembly in Delft, on September 1993. The aim of the research program is to obtain a better understanding of the high cycle fatigue behaviour of cables used in civil engineering applications. The lack of active Co-operation between the laboratories of member countries has hindered the Working Group.

The research project and a first call for co-operation were launched in Delft in 1993 and preliminary results were presented during the General Assembly of Stuttgart in 1995. In 1997, referring to the initial decision leading to the establishment of OIPEEC which implied a "general Co-ordination of studies and researches on wire rope fatigue", some precise proposals were made and a call launched again for volunteer laboratories to gather energies and accumulate results. This research program was initiated in the LCPC and some of the current projects have involved the co-operation of several French universities namely: Ecoles Centrales Group (Paris, Nantes, Lyon), Joseph Fourier University (Grenoble). Below is a summary of the report of the Working Group 4 presented to the General Assembly at the Technical Meeting in Krakow. 

Author(s): Gourmelon, J.-P.