Response of a wire rope strand to axial and torsional loads: Asymptotic modeling of the effect of interwire contact deformations

The refined discrete mathematical model of a simple helical wire rope strand is developed. The effect of the transverse contraction of the wire strand through Poisson’s ratio and also through local contact deformations (wire flattening) has been studied in detail. In order to express the interwire contact deformation in terms of the parameters describing the strand deformation, we formulate a two-dimensional model interwire contact problem. The interwire contact interaction is treated as a frictionless unilateral plain strain problem. The nonlinear model interwire contact problem has been solved by the method of matched asymptotic expansions. The constitutive equations for a helical wire rope strand, which take into account both the Poisson’s ratio effect and the effect of contact deformation, are obtained in a closed form.