Experimental Study on Fatigue Crack Propagation of High-Strength Steel Wire with Initial Defects for Bridge Cables

In order to study the effect of initial defects on fatigue crack propagation law, a test method to identify fatigue crack propagation rate and path based on load waveform variation was presented, and a new test device was designed to apply fatigue pulsation loads to multiple wires for bridge cables simultaneously in this paper. To simplify the corrosion defect formation process, a machine-cut notch was used to describe the initial defect on the steel wire surface. Firstly, fatigue crack propagation tests were conducted on the surface notched steel wire specimens. By using crack front marking technique, the “beach-like patterns” visible to the naked eyes on the cross sections of the steel wires were formed, and the process of fatigue crack propagation can be tracked and reproduced. Then Autodesk Computer Aided Design (AutoCAD) software was used to describe the morphology of “beach-like patterns” and accurately measure the depth and width of cracks. Finally, the influence of initial defect morphology on fatigue crack propagation rate was investigated according to the relationship between fatigue cracks depth and cyclic loading numbers. The results show that the test device designed in this paper can effectively realize the synchronous fatigue crack propagation test of multiple wires, and significantly shorten the fatigue test period. By observing and analyzing the change of load waveform, the moment of fatigue crack propagation can be directly and accurately determined. The larger the depth, the smaller the width and the sharper the morphology of initial defect, the faster the crack propagation rate and the shorter the life of notched wire specimens under the combined action of fatigue loads and corrosive medium.