Investigation on the Mechanical Behavior of the Prestressing Strand by the Finite Element Method

Abstract

Wire ropes that have a wide range of applications endure loads, stresses, strains, and moments while carrying out the duty of carrying loads. Wire ropes and strands are frequently used as load carrying elements due to their flexible structure and being reliable products. A prestressing steel strand is a form of the pattern of 1x6 helical wires which supply extra stiffness. Contact conditions between adjacent wires, helical geometry of wires at outer layers make it difficult to find the mechanic response of wire ropes or strands under axial load. A good way to overcome this difficulty is to perform a computer-aided simulation with finite element method. In this study, a prestressing strand having 11.11 mm diameter is computer-aided modeled by using SolidWorks, and then ANSYS Workbench is used to determine the mechanical response of the investigated rope strand. The findings indicate that results remained in the elastic region in all finite element simulations until the strain value of 0.00728.