Experimental determination of degradation influence on bending over sheave fatigue life of steel wire ropes

Abstract

In this study, effects of internal and external wire breaks, abrasive wear, insufficient lubrication, curling on bending over sheave fatigue life of steel wire ropes have been investigated. Experimental studies have been performed for two different steel wire ropes to investigate how steel wire rope samples are affected by degradations. Experimental results have been compared and the most critical degradation type and severity orders of defects or failures on bending over sheave fatigue life for both ropes have been presented. The most critical degradation type has been found as four adjacent internal strand breaks for rotation resistant rope and 3 × 2 external wire breaks for 6 × 36 WS rope among another degradation types investigated. The results indicate that bending over sheave fatigue life is influenced substantially by degradations artificially created.