The fracture of cables is often caused by fatigue phenomena. To analyse the fatigue behaviour of these elements, a device has been designed, manufactured, and validated. This machine can produce different load states for the specimens, combining variable axial loads and variable bending moments. The testing machine has been designed to achieve two goals: to avoid the fracture of the cable in the vicinity of the clamps and to assure that the fracture of the cable is in the middle of the length of the specimen. The type of failure will be due to a combination of global stresses and fretting fatigue phenomena. This work also shows the results of different fatigue tests for a specific strand configuration. Finally, the fracture and contact surfaces of the strand have been analysed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results obtained with this device show that it is adequate for testing cables and strands subjected to different combinations of axial loads and bending moments.
There are several procedures used to increase fatigue life of components suffering from fretting, certain of which involve the modification of the surface material properties or the generation of compressive residual stresses near the surfaces in contact. Moreover, relatively little attention has been paid to the situation in which the contact pair stiffness is modified by changing the geometry of the components. The present paper describes an analysis of the possible beneficial effects on the fretting life of introducing voids inside the material of the components under fretting conditions. From a 3D perspective, this manufacturing characteristic is difficult to achieve using conventional techniques, although additive manufacturing could achieve this easily. A numerical analysis of a typical cylindrical contact configuration in fretting is simulated, with the novelty of introducing circular holes beneath the half‐plane surface. These holes change the contact pair stiffness, leading to a decrease in the surface contact stress field.
Fatigue failure of cables and strands is a common and complex problem. Failure is typically caused by different combinations of time‐variable bending and axial forces. In addition to these loads, contact stresses between wires may play an important role in the fatigue failure of cables. The present work aims to provide deep insight into the fatigue failure of a seven‐wire stainless steel strand subjected to a combination of variable axial and bending loads. To avoid side effects in the analysis, fatigue failure of the strand close to the clamps is prevented. Several tests were performed with a new device specifically designed to avoid failure near the clamps. Thus, failure is always produced at the middle length of the specimen. Test simulations were performed by employing the finite element method. The numerical results were validated via comparisons with experimental data. Finally, life prediction curves were obtained.
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