Mechanical analysis of non-perpendicularly crossed steel wires in frictional wear

Abstract

This paper builds a theoretical model for crossed steel wires in frictional wear with the considerations of interwire elliptical contact, the wear movement effect and the dependence of wear coefficient on contact stress. A stepwise solution procedure based on an efficient method is proposed to numerically solve the theoretical model, realizing the accurate simulation of wear evolution step by step. The results show that the cross angle between wires has significant influences on the wear scar and mechanical property of the wires. The non-perpendicularly crossed arrangements between wires leads to narrow and long elliptical wear regions at a small cross angle, which are more even than the concentrated ones at a large cross angle. Compared with the moving wire, the static wire suffers a greater cross-sectional area loss and larger volumetric wear, and is in a greater risk of fracture failure, especially under large cross angle conditions. Local concentrations of contact stress occur in the contact zone border and vary with the cross angle and the moving wire's position, resulting in a changing dangerous area for the risk of contact fatigue. An increment in the cross angle results in larger contact stress, elastic deformation, subsurface stress of wires, and a deeper dangerous zone for local stress yielding from the wire surface.