Wire rope failures

Wire rope consists of several strands laid (or 'twisted') together like a helix, where each strand is made up of individual wires which are also twisted together. Invention is attributed to Wilhelm Albert, a German mining engineer also known as the first person to record observations of metal fatigue. Wire ropes are widely used for lifting applications, subject to tension but also bending where running through sheaves. Wire rope is also used in suspension bridges, where it is subject to tensile and fluctuating tensile loads, as well as slings to harness goods such as logs and lengths of rail, where bending around such goods results in high local bending stresses. Three failure cases will be presented, representing each of the three applications mentioned above.