Wear evolution in a stranded rope under cyclic bending: Implications to fatigue life estimation

The Archard's wear law based mathematical model of fretting wear between wires is applied to elaboration of the experimental results of the previously reported study of the wear degradation in a stranded steel wire rope subjected to cyclic bending over a sheave. It is shown that the dependence of the coefficient of wear on the contact pressure should be taken into account to explain the observed increase of the wear severity with a reduction of the shave diameter. Accordingly, a mathematical model of fretting wear based on the Archard–Kragelsky wear law was developed, and an example of calibration of the wear law parameters was given. Some implications to fatigue life estimations for stranded wire ropes are discussed.

► Archard's wear law based mathematical model of fretting wear between wires.
► Elaboration of the experimental results on the wear degradation in a stranded steel wire rope.
► Mathematical model of fretting wear based on the Archard–Kragelsky wear law.
► Method of calibration of the wear law parameters in the Archard–Kragelsky wear law.