Synthetic fiber ropes are widely used in the maritime industry, with applications from sailboat rigging to offshore platform mooring lines, thanks to their numerous qualities compared to steel cables: light weight, good specific mechanical properties and excellent marine resistance. A key feature of these ropes is their sensitivity to loading history, as this affects subsequent performance. In the present work the influence of the maximum bedding-in load level and the loading path were studied at the different rope component scales (filament, yarn and braided rope), in order to develop an optimal bedding-in procedure for braided ropes. The load levels were: 10%, 30% and 50% of the tensile break load of the sample. From the results obtained, the influence of braid construction and material have been studied, and an efficient bedding-in process has been defined. It was shown that the main parameter is the maximum load level, the loading path is not important. The load required to bed in HMPE ropes is closely related to changes in the braid angle under load.
Highlights► Unique results of the influence of bedding in protocol on at different rope scales. ► Influence of bedding-in loading path and loading level on tensile behavior. ► Correlation between fibers reorientation and bedding-in protocols. ► Separation of contributions from material and construction.
Friction is one of the key factors in the manufacture of ropes, and has an important influence on the mechanical behavior of many fiber assemblies. For this reason, the understanding and the evaluation of the coefficients of friction between fibers is an essential step in the development of numerical rope models. This paper describes tests on a modified, upscaled version of the ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) standard yarn-on-yarn abrasion test device, which allows measurement of the friction coefficient between polyamide rope yarns. It is shown that the inter-fiber angle has a significant influence on the friction coefficient, and the direction of movement relative to the filament has to be considered in the determination of this coefficient. A normalized representation allows friction coefficients measured for a range of test conditions to be plotted on a single curve. The abrasion test device allows the friction coefficient to be measured throughout abrasion tests. It is concluded that lower friction leads to higher abrasion resistance and longer lifetime.
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