Investigation of elastoplastic effects of cables under large spatial deformation

Cables are complex components consisting of a multi-layer structure and various materials. The structural setup includes for example conducting wires, isolating shields and protecting sheaths. This leads to several inelastic effects under large deformations like pull-out of wires, delamination of layers or friction between the constituents. The materials used in cables belong to different material classes and consequently show different behavior under load. Elastoplastic behavior has to be expected for metallic wires, whereas polymer layers behave viscoelastically. The combination of these inelastic effects caused by the structure and constituents of cables motivates the inclusion of inelasticity in the material model on a phenomenological level. Since cables are flexible, slender structures, they can be described physically correctly by the theory of Cosserat rods. In this context, the constitutive equations are formulated in terms of the sectional quantities. The related model parameters have to be determined in suitable experiments. As cables undergo large multiaxial deformations in applications, uniaxial experiments are not sufficient for their characterization.