Modeling the Effective Inelastic Behavior of Multi-Wire Cables Under Mechanical Load Using Finite Elements

In the development and manufacturing process of modern cars, cables and hoses are important system components. In automotive industry, virtual assembly planning and digital validation of system layouts require a fast and physically correct simulation of the mechanical behavior of cables and hoses. The mechanical response of cable systems and hoses under load is typically non-linear and inelastic due to their multi-component structure. However, those effects can hardly be observed and investigated separately in experiments. Thus, the authors recently presented simplified cable models using the commercial finite element tool ANSYS which take wire interactions into account. As cables in automotive applications are often subject to large deformations, finite beam elements with quadratic shape functions were used to discretize the single helix wires. The comparison of simulation results obtained for helix wire strands under bending with analytical results based on wire rope theory showed good agreement for the case of frictionless interactions. Furthermore, the modeling approach serves as a versatile toolbox for the investigation of material and structural inelastic effects which commonly occur when cables are deformed. A significant influence of structural parameters, such as the helix angle of the wires or the choice of friction model parameters, on the mechanical response could be found. In this work, this modeling approach is applied to the simulation of multi-wire strands consisting of parallel elastic wires under bending and torsion. The results of these mesoscopic simulations will be compared to experimental results.