Losses to bending and unbending wire rope around a pulley / drum and spooling

[GravWeller]

Hey folks,

I'm designing a gravity energy storage system, so efficiency is extremely important. I haven't been able to pin down the loss that will occur from bending and unbending the wire rope, and the loss to friction as the wire rope is spooled. I'm expecting there is a method to get the bending force related to the radius of the pulley, diameter of wire rope, strand/wire count, and lay angle. I would expect spooling friction to be a function of line tension, distance between drum and pulley (fleet angle), and wire rope lay.

Any thoughts or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

 

[DAVIDSTECKER]

You might want to look into soft line like AmSteel Blue or some other Hi-tech rope.
Very flexible with nearly the same strength Of wire rope.
One down side to it is that the line can "Dive" into the wraps on the drum if not managed.

 

[Compositepro]

When frictional losses due to flexing of wire ropes or cables is important, thin metal belts are used instead. Frictional losses are inherent in cables. The reason cables are flexible is that shear movement between individual strands is allowed to occur.