A Stress Based Methodology for the Design of Wire Rope Systems

Wire ropes have been used extensively in a wide variety of applications for many years. However, detailed analysis capabilities for wire ropes have only been developed in the last several years. Furthermore, these capabilities have not been exploited in the design of actual systems which are still designed in an empirical manner. This paper presents a stress based design methodology for wire rope systems based on these recent analysis capabilities. In addition to wire stress, this methodology allows multiple system properties to be considered during the design process. This is in opposition to current methods which only consider rope strength, and then size other components to match that particular rope. The optimum design problem is formulated for minimum weight design. Finally, examples illustrate the usefulness of the approach and its applicability to the improved design of real systems.