Abstract: A novel description method is developed to study wire rope and its defects. The structure and loading performance of wire ropes are analyzed to build a structure vector of wire rope, the vector comprises six structure parameters which are the number of strand layer, the number of strand, the rotation angle of strand, the number of wire layer, the number of wire and the rotation angle of wire. In order to explicate the description method of defects, a generalized metric of the distance in wires is defined; Wire, wire rope, broken wire and wire wear are defined. Wire is described by using eight parameters, and they are the six parameters mentioned above and two newly added parameters, i.e. the change of wire rotation angle and the diameter of wire. Wire rope is defined as a wire set. Broken wire is described by using six parameters mentioned above and two newly added parameters, i.e. the width of fracture and the diameter of wire. Wire wear is described by using the six parameters mentioned above and two newly added parameters, i.e. the change of wire rotation angle and the wear ratio. Two examples, locked-coil wire rope and six-strand wire rope, are taken to illustrate the application of this description method. The examples indicate that flaws in wire rope can be described abstractly by using mathematic language under the support of the new description method.

Key words: Description method, Flaw, Specimens, Wire rope