Computational Design of the Compacted Wire Strand Model and Its Behavior Under Axial Elongation

Abstract

Compacted wire strand is produced by applying compression to the readymade classical wire strand. Therefore, parametric mathematical curves that can create geometric cross-sectional shape of the center and outer wires are not available. The center and outer wires of compacted wire strand are formed with the help of the real cross-sectional compacted wire rope by using the developed computer code. Due to the compaction process cross-sections of the core wire and the outer single helical wires of the circular wire strand becomes to hexagonal and isosceles trapezoidal shapes respectively. The amount of gap in the cross-sectional area is decreased and the contact surfaces of the wires are increased by compaction process. As a result, the diameter of the compacted wire strand is decreased at the end of this process. After the modeling process, a finite element analysis is conducted by applying strain boundary condition to the compacted wire strand. The obtained results are compared with the analytical, test and the finite element analysis results obtained for the classical wire strand model and the good agreement between them is recognized. Meanwhile the analysis results showed that the contact forces are decreased due to the increased contact area between the outer wires of the compacted wire strand. This also proves that the compaction process increases the strength and life span of wire strands.