Abstract: The 6×19+FC point contact rope is taken as the research object to study the bending fatigue behavior of the hoisting rope. The influence of the pre-tension to the bending fatigue life, the damage value and the number of the visible broken wires is investigated to explore the fatigue damage mechanism. The effect of the pre-tension on the bending fatigue behavior is tested by the test carried out on the self-made bending fatigue apparatus. Wire rope nondestructive testing instrument and manual inspection are used to detect the bending fatigue life, respectively. Furthermore, the morphologies of the fatigue damaged steel wire surfaces are observed on the optical electron microscope and the S-3000N scanning electron microscope. The results show that, the damage value and the number of the visible broken wires in the outer layer increase with the increase of pre-tension while the bending fatigue life of the wire rope decrease. The broken wires appear at the position of the outer layer where wear seriously with the bending pulleys. Moreover, broken wires appear length value concentration. Furthermore, the result that the fretting wear among the internal wires is also an important factor on fatigue life of wire rope is obtained by analyzing the morphologies of the wire wear scars on the optical electron microscope and the S-3000N scanning electron microscope.

Key words: Bending fatigue, Damage mechanism, Fatigue life, Steel wire rope