Finite element modeling of fretting wear scars in the thin steel wires : Application in crossed cylinder arrangements

Abstract

This paper completes a series of two papers in which a FE based methodology for the prediction wear scars in thin steel wires under fretting wear conditions is developed. In the first paper ‘Finite element modeling and experimental validation of fretting wear scars in thin steel wires’ a FE fretting wear simulation model for a common 90° crossed cylinder tribological arrangements was developed and validated. The second paper deals with modeling accurately the elliptical wear scars presented in wire rope systems, in contrast with the simpler circular wear scars presented in the 90° crossed cylinder configuration. The main parameters involved in the wear simulation (mesh size, simulation wear increments per fretting cycle and cycle jump ΔN) are calibrated to obtain the minimum computational time. An exhaustive validation methodology for elliptical wear scars is presented. The proposed model presents very good correlation with respect to the experimental results, predicting wear scars with errors less than 15%. This FE model is presented as a helpful tool for the wire rope designers in the analysis of the severity of the wear scars under different operational and constructive parameters, so that, due to the complex construction of wire ropes, the wires contact between them with different crossing angles.