Interwire wear and its influence on contact behavior of wire rope strand subjected to cyclic bending load

The present study establishes a solving model for analyzing the interwire wear evolution of a wire rope strand subjected to cyclic bending load, in which the frictional contact and sliding between the wires are considered simultaneously. A wear experiment between the wires is conducted to study the wear behavior of the wires. Meanwhile, the proposed model is verified experimentally. Then the interwire wear and its effect on the contact behavior of the strand are analyzed. The results show that the interwire wear only happens on the side further from the curvature center of the bended strand than its neutral layer, and no wear happens when the wires are apart from each other or the interwire slippage is zero. As the wear process goes on, the wear region extends only along the normal direction of the core-wire contact line, and the maximum wear depth occurs at the middle position between the neutral layer and the furthest location from the curvature center. The contact pressure is distributed uniformly along the normal direction of contact line, but a significant stress concentration and local deformation happen at the position furthest from the curvature center of the bended strand.