Modelling, simulation and experimental investigation of cables

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Stefan Diebels; Professor Dr.-Ing. Alexander Düster
• Subject Area: Mechanics
• Term: from 2018 to 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 405490285

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

The objective of this project was to characterize the mechanical properties of cables and simulate them based on anisotropic effective materials using finite elements. The investigation focused on the material and geometric effects arising from the complex composition of the cable’s material layers and their behavior under various loading conditions such as tension, torsion, bending, and combined loading. The project was divided into two phases. In the first phase, the cable cross-section was considered as a homogeneous, anisotropic material. Goals included exploring the anisotropic elastoplastic behavior, separating material and geometric effects, setting up a test stand, finite element modeling, implementing an elastoplastic material model, and developing a specific contact formulation. Additionally, model parameters were identified and verified. In the second phase, the focus was on examining individual cable components through a layered approach. This enabled better modeling of the complex interactions between the cable layers. Goals included adapting the test stand, investigating interactions between cable components, developing a preloading method to increase reproducibility, studying friction effects, and extending the contact formulation. A multiaxial test stand was constructed to test cables under various deformations. An anisotropic elasto-plastic material model together with higher order elements was implemented and the results were validated with the experimental data. The results confirmed the anisotropy of the cables and their complex behavior under different loading conditions.

Publications

• Nonlinear computation of cables with high order solid elements using an anisotropic material model. PAMM, 20(1).
  Hildebrandt, André; Sharma, Prateek; Diebels, Stefan & Düster, Alexander
  
• Experimental and numerical investigation of the deformation behaviour of cables and thin beam-like structures under multi-axial loading. Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids, 27(10), 2314-2337.
  Hildebrandt, André; Sharma, Prateek; Düster, Alexander & Diebels, Stefan
  
• Non-negative moment fitting quadrature for cut finite elements and cells undergoing large deformations. Computational Mechanics, 70(5), 1059-1081.
  Garhuom, Wadhah & Düster, Alexander
  
• Numerical Investigation of High-Order Solid Finite Elements for Anisotropic Finite Strain Problems. International Journal of Computational Methods, 19(05).
  Hildebrandt, André & Düster, Alexander
  
• Efficient simulation of cables with anisotropic high‐order solid finite elements. PAMM, 22(1).
  Hildebrandt, André; Sharma, Prateek; Diebels, Stefan & Düster, Alexander
  
• Mechanical Characterisation of Cables in Different Loading Directions. PAMM, 22(1).
  Sharma, Prateek; Hildebrandt, André; Düster, Alexander & Diebels, Stefan
  
• Nonlinear cable computations using high‐order solid elements with hp‐adaptive refinement for anisotropic plasticity. PAMM, 23(4).
  Hildebrandt‐Raj, André; Sharma, Prateek; Diebels, Stefan & Düster, Alexander