Wire Rope Research Articles

Improved EMAT Sensor Design for Enhanced Ultrasonic Signal Detection in Steel Wire Ropes

This study is focused on optimizing electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) sensors for enhanced ultrasonic guided wave signal generation in steel cables using CAD and modern manufacturing to enable contactless ultrasonic signal transmission and reception. A lab test rig with advanced measurement and data processing was set up to test the sensors’ ability to detect cable damage, like wire breaks and abrasion, while also examining the effect of potential disruptors such as rope soiling. Machine learning algorithms were applied to improve the damage detection accuracy, leading to significant advancements in magnetostrictive measurement methods and providing a new standard for future development in this area. The use of the Vision Transformer Masked Autoencoder Architecture (ViTMAE) and generative pre-training has shown that reliable damage detection is possible despite the considerable signal fluctuations caused by rope movement.

In-Plane Seismic Strengthening of Brick Masonry Wall Using Wire Rope and Neoprene

In-Plane Seismic Strengthening of Brick Masonry Wall Using Wire Rope and Neoprene

Mooring line materials for mini-TLP platforms

Abstract The present paper aims to compare the different types of mooring lines and materials with respect to motions and performance of a mini-Tension-Leg Platform. FloatMast®, that has been deployed in the Aegean Sea and completed a 1-year successful offshore site assessment, is a mini TLP and its structural model was used to evaluate the different mooring systems. Synthetic ropes, as alternative to wire ropes, have been introduced recently for mini TLPs, and their performance in these types of offshore platforms is of notable interest, both performance and marketwise. The simulations were conducted using DNV’s software SESAM suite and address operational as well as extreme wave conditions. The results present, for all materials, the performance of each mooring line in terms of axial tension and platform movement.

Dynamic Monitoring the Friction Transmission of Mine Hoist Using Triboelectric Nanogenerators Self‐Powered Sensor Based on Different Surface Structures Embedded in the Friction Lining

The friction lining is a critical component of the friction hoist, serving as the driving force for lifting through its interaction with the wire rope. Monitoring the friction state between the wire rope and the friction lining is crucial as it directly impacts lifting capacity, work efficiency, and overall safety. By employing finite element simulation and creating surface microstructures on triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) using ultraviolet laser, this study demonstrats that microstructure can improve voltage output. Compared with TENG without morphology, the voltage is increased by nearly seven times, reaching 2.28 V. Moreover, experiments revealed that embedding TENG at the optimal standard point of the friction lining enables effective monitoring of friction transmission under varied conditions, with the voltage signal showing synchronization with friction force. Notably, the voltage reached 520 mV under increasing specific pressures and stabilized around 670 mV with rising sliding speeds. This research represents a significant step toward real‐time monitoring of intelligent mining systems by dynamically observing friction transmission in mine hoists.

Design and shock isolation performances of two-layered ring-spring meta-isolation systems

Two-layered ring-spring-resonator (RSR) based meta-isolation system (RSR-M) has been developed to improve shock isolation effect. In the numerical calculations, shock acceleration ratio (SAR), shock displacement ratio (SDR) and relative displacement ratio (RDR) were introduced to evaluate the shock isolation performances of the conventional isolation system (CON) and the RSR-M, considering the effects of the excitation amplitude, the weight of the middle mass block and the stiffness of the lower isolators. The results demonstrate that the SAR of the RSR-M is always smaller than that of the CON, and the SDR of the RSR-M is first larger than that of CON in the shock amplification region and then smaller in the isolation region. The weight of middle mass blocks has little influence on the isolation performance of the RSR-M because of the softening behavior of the isolators. Finally, shock isolation experiments were also carried out to measure the damping ratios of the selected wire rope isolators and further analyze the isolation performance of the RSR-Ms. In general, meta-isolation system provides a new reference and idea for the design of the isolation system of engineering structures in some sense.

Steel Wire Rope Damage Width Identification Method Based on Residual Networks and Multi-Channel Feature Fusion

In order to ensure the safety of steel wire rope in various application scenarios, it is particularly important to quantitatively detect the defects of wire rope. Complex detection conditions affect the detection efficiency of wire rope. Therefore, based on the magnetic flux leakage method, this study proposes a method to identify the damage width of steel wire rope for multi-channel fusion of a Hall sensor array. Firstly, the Hall sensor array is used to capture the magnetic flux leakage data of steel wire rope; then, continuous wavelet transform is used to decompose the original data, and moving average filtering is used to denoise each component; the denoised components are merged and converted into a time spectrum, and the time spectrum is classified by ResNet50 image classification model to realize the detection of wire rope damage width. According to the dataset used in this study, the results show that the proposed method performs best in the mainstream noise reduction model; detection accuracy for the width of damage in steel wire ropes is 97%, which proves that the proposed method is effective and feasible.

Stiffness Hardening Effect of Wire Rope Isolators under Small Cyclic Loads for Vibration Isolation

Wire rope isolator (WRI) devices are widely used in vibration reduction industrial equipment, and stiffness is the key parameter that determines isolation effectiveness. WRI devices show slight nonlinearity under small loads, and the manufacturers generally only provide the initial parameters. To investigate the mechanical behavior changes in the WRI devices under repeated loads, five types of WRI specimens were tested under various amplitudes, loading speeds, and preloads. The test results of large symmetrical compression and tension loads showed that the WRI devices demonstrated stable hysteresis curves under repeated loads, while the hysteresis curves were independent of the loading speed. The test results of small cyclic loads with large preloads show that the stiffness of the WRI specimen follows the logarithmic law, with the cycle number under various loading conditions. Particularly, the stiffness of the specimen increases by about 10–30% after 50 cycles. The initial stiffness Ka decreases linearly with the preloads, while the decrease is quadratic in relation to the cyclic load. The hardening coefficient Ca shows a positive correlation with the loading capacity of the WRI devices, while it shows a negative correlation with the preload and cyclic load amplitudes. It is recommended to consider the stiffness increase in the WRI devices during the evaluation of isolation effectiveness.

Design and Development of Sensing Unit for Wire Rope Tester

In this work, a sensing unit on a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) has been designed to house hall sensors. Hall sensors are used to capture leakage flux signals from magnetized wire ropes for Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) of wire ropes. Various parameters are optimized before designing PCB, such as: Lift-off, orientation of sensor, number of hall sensors. Hall sensor signals are captured using DAQ card of NI® and program is written in LABVIEW® software. System is designed for: reducing noise in acquired signal (using RC filter), decreasing the number of channels for data acquisition system, reducing system cost and maintain signal fidelity.

Effect of torsional angle on the fretting wear behavior and fracture failure mechanism of steel wires with spiral contact structure

The fretting wear of steel wire will reduce the service life of wire rope and severely threaten the safety of mine hoisting. To investigate the influence of torsion on the fretting wear behavior of steel wire, the fretting wear tests of steel wires with spiral contact structure under the action of tensile-torsional coupling forces were conducted, and the fatigue fracture failure mechanism was revealed. The result indicates that the CoF increases with increasing torsional angle. As the cycles increase, the sliding distance between the wires decreases, while the adhesion increases. The fretting area gradually transitions from gross sliding status to partial sliding status. The sliding distance and energy loss between the wires increase with increasing torsional angle. The wear depth and coefficient increase with increasing torsional angle, and the wear level of peak contact structure is more serious than that of valley contact structure. The primary wear mechanisms of steel wire are abrasive wear, adhesive wear and fatigue wear. The fatigue fractograph of steel wire is obviously divided into fatigue source zone, crack growth zone and final fracture zone. Abundant secondary cracks and dimples exist in the final fracture zone, and the fatigue fracture failure mechanism is mainly ductile fracture.

Influence of diagonal reinforcement in grouted vertical joints between precast concrete wall panels, part I: Experimental investigation

AbstractMulti‐storeyed buildings are constructed using precast concrete large panels. Although the resistance to lateral loads during an earthquake can be provided by the walls, the vertical joints between the panels remain the weak links. Conventionally, a grouted vertical joint between precast panels is achieved using minimum number of overlapping transverse horizontal U‐bars or looped wire ropes from the adjacent panels, with a holder bar at the overlap, and subsequent grouting of the gap. It was observed that under in‐plane lateral loads, the shear behavior of such joints, especially those with looped wire ropes, is brittle. This paper presents a study to improve the behavior of conventional joints by introducing diagonal reinforcement (DR). Toward this, 13 specimens were tested under monotonic loading and 2 specimens were tested under quasi‐static cyclic loading. The parameters investigated were the types of transverse joint reinforcement, types and strengths of diagonal reinforcement. The compressive strengths of panel concrete and joint grout were kept similar to industry practice. The specimens with DR showed substantial increase of the shear strength and load retention beyond the peak. The presence of conventional transverse joint reinforcement in addition to DR, increases the retention capacity of the joint. Thus, the behavior of a joint with DR was found to be stronger and more ductile.

Optimization and forecasting of reinforced wire ropes for tower crane by using hybrid HHO-PSO and ANN-HHO algorithms

Wire rope is a vital component of every crane. Wire rope faults are related to the operation, fabrication environment, etc., and the prevalent mode of failure is fatigue. The aim of this study is to develop an advanced tower crane applicable to wire rope with integrated reinforcement. Steel wire ropes are superiorly used in several tower crane applications, but they may create certain failures such as less fatigue and wear-resistant. In this study, steel wires are strengthened by granite and Zinc oxide (ZnO) reinforcement. Two sets of wire ropes are prepared as complete and partial reinforcement of steel wire with seven strands and 15 wires. The failure tests such as hardness, wear analysis, tensile strength, and fatigue life are optimized using hybrid Harris Hawk optimization-based Particle swarm Optimization (Hybrid HHO-PSO). Besides, the experimented wire rope performances are predicted using hybrid Artificial Neural Network based HHO (Hybrid ANN-HHO). Fully reinforced wire ropes provide better performances for both experimented and optimization behaviors. This provides 1818 MPa of maximum tensile strength, 0.23 mm of minimal wear depth, and 3.38x104 times better fatigue life. In the HHO-PSO optimization method, the obtained better tensile strength is 1822 MPa, wear depth is 0.66 mm, and Fatigue life is 3.57 x104 times. Besides, from the predicted outcomes, ANN-HHO provides a minimal error value than the ANN approach. The result of this study will open up different ways for the advancement of wire rope in tower crane application by improving its load bearing capacity. The outcomes from this research can be practically applicable for increasing the load bearing capacity of the tower crane without increasing the number of wires and strands in the wire rope.

Vibration Control for Laminated Composite Spherical-Cylindrical-Combined Shells: Theory and Experiment

Considering the structural damage and instability due to extensive vibrations, the present investigation focuses on the dynamic characteristics analysis and vibration control for aerospace structures such as rocket stages and aircraft cowling, modeled as laminated composite spherical-cylindrical-combined shells (SCCSs). The theoretical model of the SCCSs is established by a series of artificial connection and boundary springs. The proposed method’s validity is confirmed through finite element analysis and experimental validation. Nickel-titanium-steel wire ropes (NiTi-STs) are then introduced as a passive vibration control method for the SCCSs. Both circumferential and axial NiTi-ST laying schemes demonstrate good vibration control capabilities on the SCCSs. For similar lengths of NiTi-STs, the vibration control effect of circumferential laying schemes is superior to that of the axial one. Furthermore, the vibration control effect of the circumferential schemes is found to be dependent on the number and positioning of NiTi-STs. The influence of the NiTi-ST structural parameters on the vibration control performance is also analyzed; adjusting the structural parameters appropriately is helpful to improve the vibration reduction effect.

Research on Surface Defect Detection Method of Wire Rope Outer Covering Layer Based on Deep Learning

Abstract Aiming at the requirement of a certain enterprise for the visual inspection accuracy of the surface defects of the outer sheath of the wire rope to reach 95 %, this paper adopts the existing Faster R-CNN algorithm to detect the surface defects of the outer sheath of the wire rope, and its accuracy mAP 0.5 is 8 8.7%. In order to improve the detection accuracy, the Faster R-CNN algorithm is improved. Among them, ResNeXt-101 is obtained on the basis of ResNeXt-50. It is used as the backbone network, and the attention mechanism feature pyramid network ACFPN is introduced to extract multi-scale features to enhance the network’s defect detection ability. The defect detection accuracy mAP 0.5 is improved to 93.2% In view of the diversity and large size differences of the defects of the outer sheath of the wire rope, a new loss function is constructed for the network. At the same time, the BO algorithm is used to optimize the hyperparameters of the stochastic gradient optimizer SGD of the improved network. The final designed ResNeXt101-ACFPN-Faster R-CNN algorithm is used to detect the surface defects of the outer sheath of the wire rope, and the detection accuracy mAP 0.5 reaches 95.8%. The detection goal of the enterprise is achieved. The research results show that the network optimization method proposed in this paper has a good effect on improving the detection accuracy of the surface defects of the outer sheath of the wire rope, and also verifies the effectiveness and feasibility of the algorithm improvement.

Research on the influence of rigid body modes on the operating vibration of arc gate

Abstract The 5# arc working gate of Jiangshan Wanyao Reservoir is composed of the suspension system of the gate and the steel wire rope, which has a serious vibration phenomenon when running without water. Firstly, the rigid body modal analysis of the gate suspension system is analyzed, the position size of key components such as gate support hinge shaft, gate motion guide embedded parts, and main beam position state is measured and evaluated on site, and the dynamic stress and vibration of the support arm are tested and analyzed during gate operation. It is concluded that the influence rule and weight of the steel wire rope on the rigid body mode of the gate, the torsional position of the gate, and the uneven operation condition of the side guide lead to the rigid body mode of the gate. It is suggested to improve the twisting state of the gate, adjust the unevenness of the embedded parts, and weaken the factors that induce the modal vibration of the rigid body.

A Hardware Circuit for Extracting Weak Damage Characteristics of Steel Wire Rope Using an Asymmetric Monostable System

ABSTRACTNon‐destructive testing of steel wire rope is significant in lifting machinery. However, it is still challenging to extract weak damage characteristics of steel wire rope under noise caused by harsh working conditions. Currently, extracting damage characteristics mostly involves secondary processing through software, which is cumbersome and inefficient. Stochastic resonance is a typical stochastic dynamic phenomenon of a nonlinear system, and it can extract weak damage characteristics through the cooperation of noise, weak signals, and nonlinear system models. Among different nonlinear system models, the asymmetric monostable system, which has only one fixed point, is advantageous for achieving a more stable response under pulse excitation. In this work, a hardware circuit based on an asymmetric monostable system is constructed to extract weak damage characteristics of steel wire rope. This hardware circuit can efficiently extract damage characteristics without secondary processing. Additionally, the denoising performance of the nonlinear circuit, focusing on weak signals with damage characteristics under a noisy background, is evaluated using the cross‐correlation coefficient and local cross‐correlation coefficient. The results demonstrate that the proposed method provides high recovery in the non‐destructive testing of steel wire rope.

Effects of wire rope isolators on seismic life-cycle cost of UHV bypass switch

The seismic isolation devices reduce the seismic vulnerability of the electrical equipment. Accurately assessing the seismic life-cycle cost (SLCC) of the electrical equipment is beneficial in guiding the design and enhancing the seismic resilience of electrical substations and converter stations. To evaluate the effects of the isolator devices on the seismic life-cycle cost of electrical equipment, a SLCC evaluation model was proposed in this study, and the evaluation was conducted on an ultra-high voltage (UHV) bypass switch (BPS) with wire rope isolators (WRI). The model takes into account equipment purchase, maintenance, transportation and installation costs and indirect losses caused by power outages. Afterward, the SLCC and break-even time of the UHV BPS with and without WRIs in different regions were analyzed. The results indicate that beyond the break-even time, the BPS with WRIs becomes more economically viable. Moreover, its economic viability increases as the service life extends. Therefore, in high seismic cost risk areas, it is recommended to adopt seismic isolation devices to ensure the secure and economically efficient operation of electrical equipment.

An estimation of the tower crane safety risk factors in the Vietnamese construction industry

The construction industry is among the riskiest sectors worldwide due to its involvement in complex and hazardous activities, primarily because of the use of tower cranes. Tower cranes are considered the most hazardous construction machinery, contributing to a high rate of serious accidents, including fatalities and disabling injuries, not only in Vietnam but also globally. In this paper, we identify and evaluate 42 tower crane safety risk factors specific to the Vietnamese construction industry based on their probability of occurrence, severity of impact, and associated risk levels. The paper reveals that the most probable risk factor is “Unfavorable winds (including intensity, direction, etc.)” with a mean value of 3.641. The factor with the highest severity is “Wire rope is broken” with a mean value of 4.179. Furthermore, the study shows that twenty-five out of forty-two (59.52%) factors present a moderate risk level, with a Relative Significant Index Score (RSIS) ranging from 8.019 to 13.047. Among these, the factor “Bad maintenance management of the tower crane and auxiliary aids” poses the highest risk level, with an RSIS value of 13.047. This paper aims to enhance the understanding oftower crane safety among subcontractors, government safety regulators, main contractors, maintenance personnel, and workers in the Vietnamese construction industry. Additionally, the methodology presented in this paper can be adapted for assessing safety risk factors in other industries within Vietnam.

Study on the friction loss behavior of a wire rope and liner mating pair interface under vibration conditions

PurposeThis study aims to study the influence of friction influencing factors between the wire rope and the liner on the safe use of the wire rope, which can provide guidance for the reliability design of the lifting system with strong dynamic response such as high speed, heavy load, etc., and improve the friction-driven stability of the system.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the friction mechanism of wire rope and liner under the condition of excitation is investigated by means of wire rope-liner friction-vibration experimental platform and dynamic viscoelastic test of liner.FindingsThe results show that: With increasing excitation frequency, the friction between the three liner materials (G30, K25, PU) and the wire rope decreased, and the wear of the surface shape of the liners was greater. The dynamic thermomechanical analysis (DMA) test results showed that the viscoelasticity of the three liner materials increased when the frequency was increased.Research limitations/implicationsWire ropes are widely used in deep shaft hoisting and building elevators. Its operational reliability depends on whether there is sufficient friction between the wire rope and the friction liner, and whether the friction liner has good wear resistance. The study of the friction between the wire rope and the liner influencing factors is of great significance for the safe service of the wire rope.Practical implicationsThe related results can provide guidance for the reliability design of lifting systems with strong dynamic response, such as high speed and heavy load, to improve the friction drive stability of the system.Originality/valueWith the increase of mining depth, to improve the transportation efficiency of the hoist used in deep and ultra-deep mines, as well as to ensure the safety and reliability of its operation, it is crucial that the large friction hoisting equipment has sufficient friction between the wire rope and the friction lining, as well as whether the friction lining has a good abrasion resistance.

Effect of heat input on ultrahard Fe-Cr-B-C-W-Mo-Nb hardfacing

Multicomponent alloys (Cr, Mo, W, Nb, C, B) nanostructured iron base with complex carboborides have been developed to provide great protection against abrasive wear to elements of agricultural and mining machines. These overlays are subject to severe material losses due to impact and abrasion of hard particles and therefore optimizing their wear resistance is critical when it comes to their lifespan, increasing it as a result. The objective of this work was to study the influence of heat input on the wear resistance through of the analysis of the solidification rate. In this sense, the increase of welding speed was produced a decrease of heat input and refined of microstructure. In order to explain these effects, an analysis was made of of the influence of welding speed on the geometry of the deposited metal, dilution with the base metal, microstructural evolution and hardness of iron-based nanostructured deposits with complex carbides. For this, four samples were welded with different speeds; these being 1, 2.5, 5 and 12 mm/s. A semi-automatic welding process was used with a 1.6 mm wire rope used to provide gas protection. The chemical composition was analyzed on a dilution free welded sample. For the each welded sample the dilution percentage was determined, the dimensional survey of the beads was carried out and the microstructure was characterized by X-ray diffraction and optical and scanning electron microscopy. In addition, Vickers microhardness tests were measured in the central area of the beads and the microhardness of phases were measured. The dilution of the deposited metals ranged from 17% to a maximum of 28%. A microstructure formed by a matrix with complex metal carbides and carboborides was observed. The hardness of the beads varied between 960 and 1350 HV2. The highest wear resistance was found in the sample with highest speed welding.

Study of Noise Reduction and Identification of Internal Damage Signals in Wire Ropes

Mining wire rope, a frequently used load-bearing element, suffers various forms of damage over extended periods of operation. Damage occurring within the wire rope, which is not visible to the naked eye and is difficult to detect accurately with current technology, is of particular concern. Consequently, the identification of internal damage assumes paramount importance in ensuring mine safety. This study proposes a wire rope internal damage noise reduction and identification method, first of all, through a three-dimensional magnetic dipole model to achieve the detection and analysis of the internal damage of the wire rope. Simultaneously, a sensor system capable of accurately detecting the internal damage of wire rope is developed and validated through experimentation. A novel approach is proposed to address the noise reduction issue in the design process. This approach utilizes a particle swarm optimization variational modal decomposition method to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio. Additionally, a dual-attention mode, which combines channel attention and spatial attention, is integrated into the CNN-GRU network model. This network model is specifically designed for the detection of internal damage in steel wire ropes. The proposed method successfully achieves quantitative identification of internal damage in steel wire ropes. The experimental findings demonstrate that this approach is capable of efficiently detecting internal damage in wire rope and possesses the capacity to quantitatively identify such damage, enabling adaptive identification of wire rope.