Modelling of locally damaged steel wire ropes

ABSTRACT

This work examines various approaches proposed during the last fifty years, intended for the study of the scattering fields of topology (spotting the exact location) in the magnetic flaw detectors of steel wire ropes caused by damage in various types of wire ropes. In this study, the known steel wire rope models and their damages are compared. The preservation of low degree of reliability in the modelling of wire ropes with complex and closed structures is observed. New volumetric numerical models of the wire rope structure elements are proposed, taking into account design features such as the number and the profile of the wires, coiling mode and steepness of the strands in a single wire, and the number of layers. In spotting the location of a local magnetic field defect, principal differences of various details were identified by observing the case of simplified models and comparing it with the example of a real model of a steel wire rope, in the area of the local defect location. The results demonstrate the importance of reliable modelling of the steel wire rope structure when studying the magnetic field topology in the area of wire rope defects.

KEYWORDS:

• Steel ropes
• numerical simulation
• finite element method
• local defects
• damaged rope

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the RFBR under Grant No [16-38-60078].