Parametric Modeling Method Of Wire Ropes And Analysis Of Their Mechanical Properties

In this paper,the following three aspects are studied in detail in respect of the following three key issues of wire ropes: the general parametric modeling method of wire ropes with typical geometrical structures,soft cable simulation of the entire wire rope under typical conditions,mechanical properties and failure mechanism.Firstly,a new geometrical analytical approach for the structures of wire rope which is based on a body-fitted surface coordinate system is proposed,by means of which,an efficient and accurate general parametric modeling method is given and it can be used to analyze the geometrical parameters and properties including the curvature,torsion,translational invariance and uneven distribution of wires/strands in wire ropes.As examples,the 3D parametric geometrical models of Warrington/Seale round-strand/shaped-strand(triangular and oval strand)wire ropes of the lang lay and regular lay construction,with centerlines in the shape of straight line,circle and even an arbitrary spatial curve are built by this method on CATIA.This method may be also used to derive the relations among deformation parameters in wire kinetics and stiffness expressions related to these parameters.Considering that soft cable simulation may be used to simulate the entire wire rope of true size in systems or structures,but not be able to study the local mechanical phenomena such as contact,plastic deformation,damage evolution,failures,the finite element analysis can tackle this task while it costs too much time.Thus,the strategy that combines the soft cable simulation with the finite element analysis was proposed to meet different kinds of simulation.Then,the common wire ropes are divided into five types: inhaul cables,wire ropes for ropeway,large span wire ropes,wire rope nets and wire ropes for hoist and traction according to their force features and failure modes,and the corresponding soft cable simulation models are established to analyze the entire bearing behaviors.For the last one,the strategy that combines thetraditional method using MACRO and ADAMS/Cable is presented.In this way,it can improve the efficiency of modeling and simulation.Next,three kinds of finite element models of wire rope segments in key positions are presented according to typical load types: tension,pure bending,bending,shear load,torsion and fracture analysis.And the finite element analysis was conducted on two kinds of failure modes of wire ropes.Geometrical analysis approach based on a body-fitted surface coordinate system,modeling approach,soft cable simulation models,the finite element models,optimization strategies and automatic simulation platform proposed in this paper will be helpful for designers to do design and research more efficiently.For further studies,the methods and parametric models proposed in this paper could be integrated globally and flexibly by C++ or script languages such as Python,establishing the design platform for wire ropes.