Wire Stress Distribution among Damaged Cable Based on FEM Analysis

Stay cable is a weak constructional element in cable-stayed bridge. The stay cable, carrying loads in tension, is made up of slim cold-drawn steel wires that is subject to fatigue and corrosion. Afraid that the cable failure will threaten bridge safety, cable-stayed bridge managers, jittery with the fear, tend to replace stay cables in spite of different degrees of cable damage. As a result, resources of maintaining cable-stayed bridges are greatly wasted. To reduce the waste, it is therefore necessary to have an in-depth study of mechanical behaviour of damaged stay cables. This paper, employing the finite element method, analyzes the internal force recovery of part broken wires as well as the stress distribution on broken section and then explores the impact of elements, such as torsion angle, number of wires, and wire diameter, on steel cable with broken wires.