Design and performance of ropes for climbing and sailing

Ropes are an important part of the equipment used by climbers, mountaineers, and sailors. On first inspection, most modern polymer ropes appear similar, and it might be assumed that their designs, construction, and properties are governed by the same requirements. In reality, the properties required of climbing ropes are dominated by the requirement that they effectively absorb and dissipate the energy of the falling climber, in a manner that it does not transmit more than a critical amount of force to his body. This requirement is met by the use of ropes with relatively low longitudinal stiffness. In contrast, most sailing ropes require high stiffness values to maximize their effectiveness and enable sailors to control sails and equipment precisely. These conflicting requirements led to the use of different classes of materials and different construction methods for the two sports. This paper reviews in detail the use of ropes, the properties required, manufacturing techniques and materials utilized, and the effect of service conditions on the performance of ropes. A survey of research that has been carried out in the field reveals what progress has been made in the development of these essential components and identifies where further work may yield benefits in the future

Optimisation and thermo-mechanical analysis of a coated steam dual pipe system for use in advanced ultra-supercritical power plant

Improving the energy efficiency of power plants by increasing steam operating temperature up to 700 °C can be achieved using novel engineering design concepts such as coated steam pipe systems. This paper presents an optimised design for a novel coated dual pipe system to be used in advanced ultra-supercritical power plant. The approach developed in this study uses a combination of an optimisation algorithm and FE simulation, based on the reduction of the hoop stress at top coat/bond coat interface generated by the thermal and mechanical stresses. This allows determination of the optimum dimensions and material properties of the system. A unified viscoplastic model which combines a power flow rule with non-linear anisothermal evolution of isotropic and kinematic hardening has been used for the thermo-mechanical analysis of the coated dual pipe system under the cyclic loading. The results of the optimisation show that the value of the hoop stress at the top coat/bond coat interface is reduced significantly, compared with that in the baseline model. Finally, the potential technical challenges and future works for the proposed steam dual pipe system are discussed

A FUNDAMENTAL STUDY OF THE INTERACTION OF RESIDUAL STRESS AND APPLIED LOADING ON FRACTURE

This paper presents the results of a fundamental finite-element based study of the crack-closure effects associated with combined residual and applied loading. First, an analytical expression for a representative two-dimensional residual stress field is derived. This residual stress field contains a central compressive region surrounded by an equilibrating tensile region. The analytical expression allows the size and shape of the field to be varied along with the magnitude of the residual stress. The residual stress field is then used as a prescribed initial stress field in a finite element model, in addition to a far field applied load. By introducing cracks of increasing length into these models, charts of stress-intensity-factor versus crack length are produced for different relative magnitudes of residual stress and applied load and for different sizes and shape of the residual stress field. These charts provide insight into the way in which crack-tip conditions evolve with crack growth under conditions of combined residual and applied loading and also enable conditions of crack closure and partial closure to be identified.</jats:p

A Procedure to Measure Biaxial Near Yield Residual Stresses Using the Deep Hole Drilling Technique

Deep Hole Drilling (DHD) is a mechanical strain relief technique used to measure residual stresses within engineering components. Such techniques measure strains or displacements when part of the component is machined away and typically assume elastic unloading. However, in components containing high levels of residual stress, elastic–plastic unloading can occur which may introduce substantial error. For the case of the DHD technique, a modification to the technique referred to here as the incremental or iDHD technique has been developed to allow such high levels of residual stress to be measured. Previous work has demonstrated the accuracy of the iDHD technique, although only for axisymmetric residual stress distributions. In the present investigation, the application of the iDHD technique has been extended to the general case of biaxial residual stress fields. Finite element simulations are first carried out to demonstrate the ability of the iDHD technique to measure biaxial residual stress. Experimental measurements were then made on shrink fit components and ring welded components containing biaxial residual stress to investigate the performance of the technique in practice. Good agreements between iDHD measurements, neutron diffraction measurements and FE predictions of the residual stresses were obtained, demonstrating the generally improved accuracy of the iDHD technique compared to the standard DHD approach