Tribological behavior and mechanical properties of transmission wire rope bending over sheaves under different sliding conditions

• Published in: Wear 2023-02, Vol.514-515, p.204582, Article 204582
• Main Authors: Chang, Xiang-dong, Peng, Yu-xing, Zhu, Zhen-cai, Cheng, De-qiang, Lu, Hao, Tang, Wei, Chen, Guo-an
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Mechanical properties; Sheave; Sliding friction; Surface wear; Wire rope
• ISSN: 0043-1648; 1873-2577
• DOI: 10.1016/j.wear.2022.204582

Wear leads to performance degradation of the wire rope and seriously threatens its service reliability. This paper explored the tribological behavior of a transmission wire rope by a homemade rope-sheave sliding friction and wear test rig. Then, the strength and fatigue performance of the wire rope with different surface wear were investigated using customized test apparatuses. The results show that the friction coefficient (COF) is affected by the rope structure, contact angle and sliding velocity, which decreases from approximately 0.65 to 0.32 with increasing sliding velocity. The friction temperature rise is obviously influenced by the sliding velocity. It increases nonlinearly from approximately 51 °C to approximately 102 °C. The wear characteristics are mainly spalling, furrows and plastic deformation. The wear mechanisms are adhesive wear and abrasive wear. Additionally, with a decrease in sliding velocity, the breaking force decreases from approximately 48.7 kN–41.2 kN, and the bending fatigue life reduces nonlinearly. The maximum bending fatigue times decrease from approximately 9.9 k to 3.2 k. Furthermore, the surface wear accelerates the crack propagation rate of the service wire rope. The fracture mechanism of the wire rope is mainly ductile fracture under tensile loading and brittle fracture under fatigue loading. [Display omitted] •The COF of wire rope is affected by contact angle and sliding velocity.•Surface wear degree decreases with the increase of sliding parameters.•Wear characteristics are mainly spalling, furrow and plastic deformation.•Mechanical properties degenerate nonlinearly with the sliding velocity decreases.•Wear accelerates the crack propagation and reduces the fatigue life of the wire rope.