Wire Rope Reliability Assessment based on Damage Mechanics

Abstract

In order to estimate the instantaneous reliability during a periodic inspection of a lifting wire rope, analytical methods based on experimental results have been developed. Our approach is to study the influence of number of broken strands in the outer layer on the mechanical behavior of the wire rope. To do this, we have evaluated the damage of the wire rope through a static damage model used to predict the lifetime of the steel wire rope. Then, we estimate the reliability by the Weibull law. Finally, we linked the two parameters (damage and reliability) across the life fraction to find the correspondent reliability at each stage of the damage to conduct a predictive maintenance and change the wire rope at the right time.