How to model a steel cable in Abaqus?

[sowo]

Hello,

I am trying to model a steel cable, which enlaces a cable roll. There should be also a contact between cable an roll, where I can see the forces in the roll due to friction and enlacement. Can anybody recommend a proper element type? I've tried it with truss elements but I didn't manage to model the contact.

Thanks,

 

[btrueblood]

The only way to do it properly would be to model each individual strand of wire withing the cable, and all of the strand-to-strand contacts, along all points of the cable.

Why exactly you would want to do so is beyond me.

 

[sowo]

Thanks for your reply. But I am not intrested in each strain of the cable. My problem is to define a friction contact between the rope as a whole and the roll. And I don't know how to model the rope with the contact.
I have attached a little sketch of my problem to make it clearer.

 

[xerf]

I think it might be possible using the old slide line or tube to tube contact elements.

I do not remember the details. You should search the Abaqus documentation for *SLIDE LINE, slide line contact elements, tube-to-tube, *INTERFACE etc.

 

[sowo]

Thanks. I will try it.