Static Tests of A Steel Wire Strand (1+6 Wires) Containing 3/7 Damaged Wires and Prediction of Its Life Time

IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)
Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJME/IIJME.htm

Email: editoriijme@ipasj.org
ISSN 2321-6441
A Publisher for Research Motivation........
Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2015
Static tests of a steel wire strand (1+6 wires)

containing 3/7 damaged wires and prediction
of its life time
N.MOUHIB, H.OUAOMAR, M.LAHLOU, M. EL GHORBA
Laboratory of Control and Mechanical Characterization of Materials and Structures, National Higher School of Electricity
and Mechanics, BP 8118 Oasis, Hassan II University, Casablanca, Morocco
ABSTRACT
Steel wire ropes conception is such that there will always be some residual energy stored during their use. This introduces a
range of potential safety problems due to the unexpected release of this energy. Indeed, the smallest failures while in service is
potentially disastrous and cause substantial discomfort economically and socially. Thus, the necessity to ensure and guarantee
the reliability of a complex structure such as wire ropes; is an issue which is extremely important.
Failures of steel wire ropes are related to various degradations that particularly affect the wires and the strands, as a wire rope
ages, broken wires start to appear, usually as a result of constant fatigue, resulting in a significant reduction in cables
resistance over time, which leading to a sudden and violent break.
The purpose of the presented paper is to predict the damage of a strand (1+6 wires), based upon a simple experimental tensile
test of a strand containing 3/7 broken wires. Some results are presented showing the different stages of damage, and the critical
life fraction c that predicts the moment of critical damage is determined and thus to intervene in time for a predictive
maintenance of the system.
Keywords: Wire rope, failure, strand, damage, predictive maintenance.
1. INTRODUCTION
Industrial wire ropes have played a major role in the engineering and architecture of many large structures and are
widely used for industrial applications including construction, mining, fishing, marine and elevator, as well as, for ski
lifts, bridges and supported structures such as towers and roof systems.
They are characterized by a very complex architecture (Figure 1). Every wire rope has three basic components: the
wires, strands and core. The basic unit is the drawn wire [1]. The wires are then twisted to form a strand; the wire rope
is finally made of multistrand metal wires wrapped around a suitable core material during the cabling operation [2].
This specific structure permits the wire ropes to resume loads despite the break of one or more wires [3], Furthermore,
the compaction of strands results in a longer service life and less wear of sheave and drum. Despite all the advantages
that this specific conception represents, it is an accepted fact that wire ropes are consumable with a limited life. The
continual processes of degradation associated with operational service, will ultimately lead to failure, and the cable
should be replaced before the risk of failure becomes unacceptable.
Figure 1 Components of a steel wire rope

During the tensile test of a strand containing a number of wires artificially ruptured, it is observed that the resistance
drops at the rupture of each wire and resume its stiffness, hence the interest of our work which is predict the damage of
a strand containing 3 wires artificially broken, based upon an experimental tensile test and subsequently determine the
critical fraction of life c. Such a study could be beneficial for manufacturers due to its low cost and simplicity.
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2. MATERIAL AND EXPERIMENTATION

2.1Material
Wire ropes are identified by classifications based upon the number of strands and nominal number of wires in each
strand. Our approach is to study the behavior of a strand belonging to a steel wire rope of type 19x7 (includes 19
strands with each strand consisting of 7 individual wires) and antigyratory structure (1x7 + 6x7 + 12x7) (Figure 2); the
cable is composed of two layers of strands wired in opposite directions; this construction is specially utilized to resist
the tendency to spin or rotate under load [4].
Figure 2 Steel Wire Rope of type 19x7 and antigyratory construction (1x7 + 6x7 + 12x7)
The studied strands are composed of 7 individual wires laid helically around the central wire to produce a symmetrical
cross section (Figure 3). To obtain specimens of the strand, a suitable length of the cable was cut and strands were dewiring (wiring off). The minimum length of the samples strand is equal to the length of the test plus the necessary for
the mooring. Therefore, a length of 300 mm is anticipated as the length of the test for the strands. The measurements
tolerance in the length is a millimeter for all samples [3]. Dimensions of the strand are shown in Figure 3:
Figure 3 Dimensions of the studied strand

2.2Experimentation
To understand a material behavior, it is essential to identify it first, namely to analyze the chemical and mechanical
characteristics.
2.2.1Chemical Composition
The chemical composition is obtained by spectrometric analysis using a spectrometer peak spark. The result is
summarized in Table 1:
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Elements
1,478
Table1 Chemical composition of the material

Si
Mn
P
S
2,04
0,091
0,144
Cr
Mo
Ni
0,182
0,208
0,120
It is noticed that the wire rope is made of a low alloy steel with high percentage of carbon (about 1,478%); They are
obtained by the cold wire-drawing process, which consists of passing the wire through a conical die until the desired
diameter. Indeed, this reduction of diameter causes a hardening of the metal and then provides a high tensile strength.
2.2.2Mechanical properties
To extract the mechanical properties of the material, tensile tests were performed in the Public Testing Laboratory and
Studies, on virgin strands specimens.
The mechanical properties of the virgin strands extracted from tensile test curve [5] are reported in the table.2:
Table 2 Mechanical properties of the material
Young's modulus
Poisson's ratio
elastic limit
Breaking stress
E=189 GPa
=0,3
e=1035 MPa
r=1992 MPa
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1Static tensile test of strands with 3 wires artificially broken
Tensile test of strand wire ropes of diameter 1,85 mm was realized at 5 specimens artificially damaged by breaking 3/7
wires. The fixation of the samples is performed by means screwed wedges on both ends of the strand in order to prevent
sliding of the samples during the tests. The test curve of the applied force in function of the elongation for the strand
with 3 broken wires artificially damaged is given by the (Figure 4).
Figure 4 Test Curve of the applied force in function of the elongation for the strand with 3 wires artificially broken
According to figure 4, the studied strand has a residual ultimate force of 1415 N which drops to each failure of each
wire constituting the strand then resumes its stiffness, until the final break value 365 N corresponding to the last wire.
This could be interpreted by the fact that during the test there is a loss of resistance depending upon the number of
broken wires. The values of residual ultimate force are listed in Table 3.
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Table 3 Values of residual ultimate force

Fu (N)
Fur1 (N)
Fur2 (N)
Fur3 (N)
1415
1006
707
365
3.2Calculation of static damage

The model of static damage (Ds) is to determine the evolutions of the force whose variations are mainly due to damage.
Then we quantify the damage by the variable Ds expressed as:
(1)
Where:
Fu: the value of the maximum ultimate strength
Fur: the value of the ultimate strength
Fa: the force just before the final break
Throughout the test, we are following the phenomenon of damage from the initial state with 3 wires artificially
damaged to the complete rupture of the specimen by measuring the ultimate residual force in function of the life
fraction that corresponds to ratio of the number of broken wires on the total number of wires, this phenomenon is
described by the damage parameter Ds Equation (1) and presented in figure 5.
And we have:
In the initial state until the failure of the first wire:

In the final state:
The variation of the static damage according to the life fraction is illustrated by the curve:
Figure 5 Evolution of the static damage depending on the life fraction

The increase of the damage means the loss in static tensile force, this loss is changing when the number of broken wire
becomes more important. It is a fragile behavior of material with irreversible deformation that reduces the ultimate
force of the material.
From Figure 5, we could distinguish only the stage II and stage III (previously indicated in [5]). The stage II
corresponds to the initiation of an elastic damage, and stage III corresponds to the brutal damage. This indicates that a
strand with 3 broken wires is located in stage II of damage, and it only from 5/7 (critical life fraction c) ruptured wires
that the damage of the strand is located in the unstable zone. So when these dimensionless ratios are reached, predictive
maintenance intervention is required.
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3.3Calculation of damage using unified theory

The damage of the strand being progressive, its variation is influenced by the level of loading. Various representative
theories of this damage are given initiated by the linear of Miner law; finding that the damage changes linearly
depending on the fraction of life. [6]
By analogy with the unified theory, an empirical relationship describing the damage is proposed:
(2)
F0 is the residual endurance limit that could be determined by multiplying the ultimate residual force by a coefficient
(for n = 0; F0 = Fu).
For a coefficient
The variation of the damage according to with as a parameter is shown in Figure 6. Each curve is associated to a
loading level.
Figure 6 Evolution of Damage by unified theory and Miner law in function of the life fraction
Each curve of the figure 6 is associated to a particular level of loading. The allure of curves increases with the
increasing direction of . This damaged curves calculated from the equation (2) as a function of the fraction of life
gradually approaches the bisector (Miner) for high levels of loading.
4.CONCLUSION
A damage study was conducted based on a simple static tensile test on a sample of strand extracted from steel wire rope
of type 19x7 and antigyratory structure, 3 of its wires were broken artificially, this study allows us to follow the damage
at different levels of degradation and thereafter determine critical life fractions, which predict the time of the damage
and thus to intervene at the appropriate time before the risk of failure becomes deplorable and catastrophic. The
difference between the theoretical curves obtained by calculated unified theory and static curve is negligible, which
makes the model of the unified theory closer to experimental reality of steel strands. In industry, such studies have an
interest in any company that regularly or occasionally use wire ropes, and have as objective a predictive maintenance of
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their systems to maintain the safety of personnel and prevent fatal and expensive accidents related to the use of cables
with a low cost based only on a simple tensile test.
References
[1] EN 10264-4: 2012 Steel wire and wire products - steel wire for ropes - part 4: stainless steel wire ISSN 03353931 : European Standard approved by CEN on 19 November 2011.
[2] Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety "Wire rope lifting" in February 2010.
[3] A. Meksem, Probabilistic approach and experimental characterization of the behavior of wire rope hoist, Ph.D.
Thesis, ENSEM, University Hassan 2, Ain Chock, Casablanca, 2010.
[4] Kaczmarczyk S, Ostachowicz W. Transient vibration phenomena in deep mine hoisting cables. Part 1:
Mathematical model. Journal of Sound and Vibration 2003; 262:21944.
[5] N.Mouhib, H.Ouaomar, M.Lahlou, A.Ennaji, M. El Ghorba: Tensile test of a strand with 2 broken wires
artificially damaged and life prediction The International Journal Of Engineering And Science (IJES), Vol.4,
Issue .4 ,Pages ,PP.11-16, 2015 .ISSN (e): 2319 1813 ISSN (p): 2319 1805
[6] C. Bathias, J. Bailon, La fatigue des matriaux et des structures, pp. 328-330. 1980.
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Static Tests of A Steel Wire Strand (1+6 Wires) Containing 3/7 Damaged Wires and Prediction of Its Life Time

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IPASJ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering (IIJME)

Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJME/IIJME.htm

A Publisher for Research Motivation........

Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2015