Nonlinear dynamic response of hysteretic wire ropes. Modeling and experiments

The nonlinear dynamic response of short cables with a tip mass subject to base excitations and undergoing primary resonance is investigated via experimental tests and by employing an ad hoc nonlinear mechanical model. The considered cables are made of several strands of steel wires twisted into a helix forming composite ropes in a pattern known as ’laid ropes’. Such short span ropes exhibit a hysteretic behavior due to the inter-wire frictional sliding. A nonlinear one-dimensional (1D) continuum model based on the geometrically exact Euler-Bernoulli beam theory is conveniently adapted to describe the cable dynamic response. The Bouc-Wen law of hysteresis is incorporated in the moment-curvature constitutive relationship to reproduce the hysteretic behavior of short steel wire ropes subject to flexural cycles. The frequency response curves show a pronounced softening nonlinearity induced by hysteresis and inertia nonlinearity as confirmed by the experimental data acquired on a wire rope with a tip mass excited at its base by a shaker. The experimental nonlinear resonance response will be exploited to identify the constitutive parameters of the wire rope that best fit the frequency response curves at various forcing amplitudes.