International Journal of Fatigue: Fachri P. Nasution, Svein Sævik, Janne K.Ø. Gjøsteen
International Journal of Fatigue: Fachri P. Nasution, Svein Sævik, Janne K.Ø. Gjøsteen
International Journal of Fatigue: Fachri P. Nasution, Svein Sævik, Janne K.Ø. Gjøsteen
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: The paper presents FE analyses for predicting longitudinal stresses from tension–tension and tension–
Received 29 April 2013 bending fatigue tests of a 95 mm2 stranded copper power conductor. As fatigue test results indicated that
Received in revised form 27 August 2013 the fatigue performance was dominated by longitudinal stresses, the models were formulated by a com-
Accepted 18 September 2013
bination of elastic beam and elastic–plastic beam-contact elements that included the friction. Two con-
Available online 28 September 2013
tact conditions were investigated: the point (trellis) contact between adjacent layers and the inline
contact within each layer and between centre wire and inner layer. Due to the plastic deformations of
Keywords:
the wires obtained from the manufacturing procedure, a simplified description of the contact behaviour
Copper conductor
Point (trellis) contact
was adopted and calibrated by axial tension testing. The FE models were further validated by calibration
Inline contact testing and mesh sensitivity checks. The simulated stresses were applied to attempt bridging the gap
Plastic deformations between the SN data obtained from full cross-section tension–tension and tension–bending testing
Mesh sensitivity and SN data obtained from individual wires testing.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction (Db) (from pitch and roll motion) acting on the cables. The most
heavily loaded section is close to the attachment point (at section
Floating vessels like ships and semisubmersibles are exten- A–A) to the vessel (Fig. 2). Mean and dynamic tension will be trans-
sively used for production of oil and gas from offshore fields. Also ferred to the wires as tension and shear forces while the dynamic
offshore wind turbine concepts based on floating units have been bending moment will induce local bending as well as axial friction
developed. Electrical power cables are used in conjunction with forces into each individual wire.
floating units for provision of energy to installations on the sea As shown in Fig. 1b, the mean axial force (F x ) in each wire is a
bed, power from land to the floater, or export of power from a wind function of the mean global tension (T) and the mean global torque
turbine to land. Power cables that are linked to a floating unit are moment (M T ). The dynamic axial force (DFx) in each wire is a func-
subjected to fatigue loading from the waves and due to the move- tion of these, the corresponding dynamic quantities DT and DMT,
ment of the vessel in the waves. Therefore, fatigue strength needs the dynamic curvature (Db) and the coefficient of friction (l) be-
to be verified for design. tween the contact surfaces. The dynamic curvature results in local
A power cable consists in general of multiple conductors each bending in each wire where DMx is the dynamic torque moment
representing an assembly of individual wires usually made of cop- about the helix tangential x-direction, DMy is the dynamic bending
per or aluminium. Fig. 1a shows a typical offshore power cable for moment about the helix bi-normal y-direction and DMz is the dy-
an alternating current (AC) three-phase system. One cable usually namic bending moment about principal normal vector of the helix
has three conductors, one for each phase. Each conductor consists curve.
of copper wires helically wound in layers around a centre wire. The wires in a stranded conductor are stranded helically in lay-
During operation, a cable will be exposed to gravity, environ- ers which leads to contact longitudinally both within and between
mental loading from the sea, and to forces due to movements of each layer, which is illustrated in Fig. 3b. Contact within a layer
the vessel. The gravity will induce a mean global tension (T) and and between centre and first layer is denoted inline contact. The
mean global torque moment (M T ). The forces due to movements global axial force will result in both longitudinal and transverse
of the vessel induce a dynamic tensile load (DT) and torque forces within the layer where the transverse forces will cause
(DMT) (due to heave and surge motion) and dynamic curvatures diameter reduction in the inline (hoop) direction of each wire. If
cylindrical bodies with diameter D1 and D2 are pressed together
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +47 735 955 64. with a certain load per unit length, p, a small continuous contact
E-mail address: fachri.nasution@ntnu.no (F.P. Nasution). surface area will occur as shown in Fig. 4.
1
Presently employed at Reinertsen AS, 7010 Trondheim, Norway.
0142-1123/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2013.09.009
F.P. Nasution et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 114–128 115
Fig. 1. (a) Offshore power cable for three-phase AC system using helically stranded copper conductor inside. (b) Helically stranded copper conductor with lay angle a exposed
to dynamic and static loads.
Contact between wires in different layers is called point contact Zhou et al. [9] studied the plastic flow, local wear and fretting
(Figs. 3a and 5). failure for overhead electrical conductors imposed by bending fati-
A comprehensive literature study has been conducted with re- gue loads. Papailiou [10] presented a new model of conductors un-
spect to models for describing fatigue and contact stresses in ca- der simultaneous tensile and bending loads. During the bending
bled structures. Mindlin [1] described the contact surfaces of two loads, the model takes into account the interlayer friction and slip
isotropic bodies subjected to normal and tangential loading with- in the conductor. A mesoscale model has been developed by Hong
out friction. Dong and Steidel [2] studied the contact stress condi- et al. [11] in order to describe the bending behaviour of helically
tions between layers of strands using a photoelastic technique. wrapped cable under tension. The model accounts for the nonlin-
Hobbs and Raoof [3] have reported fatigue test results for socketed ear behaviour of the cable due to friction forces. Karlsen [12] sim-
structural strands. They concluded that the fatigue behaviour was ulated the fatigue mechanism in dynamic power cables by
governed by several failure mechanisms related to the contact con- dynamic testing in tension and bending. He concluded that the ef-
ditions close to the socket. Johnson [4] described the Hertzian con- fect of fretting on the fatigue properties was less dominant for cop-
tact stresses between two solid bodies under a certain normal load. per conductors than for steel wires and ropes. However, there is no
A theory of contact was developed for predicting the shape of the detailed information regarding the failure positions on the speci-
contact area and the growth in size with increasing load; the mag- mens. Lévesque et al. [13] presented investigations related to fret-
nitude and distribution of surface tractions, normal and possibly ting fatigue of an overhead electrical conductor focusing on the
tangential forces, transmitted across the interface. Raoof and contact conditions at the trellis contact points.
Hobbs [5] proposed an analytical model for relevant multi-layered The copper power conductor investigated here further pro-
stranded structures for determining the point and inline contact duced by a compacting procedure where the following features
forces and associated relative displacements with its ends fixed were noted:
against rotation. Raoof [6] developed from first principles a theo-
retical model using axial single wire data for predicting the axial 1. Introduction of irregularities in wire geometries, specially for
fatigue of the full cross-section at constant load amplitude, and the outer layer due to irregular supporting point contact
was able to correlate the theoretical predictions to observations conditions.
from experimental testing. Raoof [7] concluded that his theoretical 2. An increase in the contact area, thus reducing the contact
model provides useful upper bounds to the fatigue life of cables stresses.
failing at the end termination and that the termination type signif-
icantly affects the observed fatigue life. Raoof and Huang [8] pro- The effect of irregularities on the fatigue performance of indi-
posed simple methods for estimating strand plane section vidual wires were investigated by Nasution et al. [14–16] where
bending stiffness when imposed to cyclic bending and external a FE model was presented that allowed transforming the nominal
hydrostatic pressures. SN data into SN data of actual longitudinal stresses that included
As opposed to the aforementioned authors, the present study the effect of irregularities. Full cross-section SN data obtained from
focus on copper conductors applied in dynamic cables where the fatigue tension–bending tests results were also presented using a
design is based on using protective steel armours and bending simple analytical stress model. Significant deviations were noted
stiffeners to resist the external forces, thus limiting the tensile between the full cross-section SN data and the individual wire data
forces and curvatures in the copper conductor. which were believed to be due to:
116 F.P. Nasution et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 114–128
Fig. 3. Point and inline contact in a stranded copper conductor. (a) Point contacts between inner and outer layer. (b) Plan view of conductor cross section. The black arrows
show point contact between wires in adjacent layers (outer and inner layer), the red arrows show inline contact between wires within one layer and between inner layer and
core wire. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
F.P. Nasution et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 114–128 117
Fig. 4. Inline contact between two wires within layers and between inner and centre wires.
stress analysis to verify whether this is the case. The following pro-
cedure is adopted:
stresses obtained in the full cross-section tension–bending
tests presented in [16] and the tension–tension tests pre-
1. Build a FE model based on beam and beam-contact
sented here.
elements.
7. Use the simulated stresses and plot the results into the
2. Formulate a simplified contact stiffness and friction model
individual wire actual longitudinal stress range SN-curve.
representative for large contact areas (plasticised contact
surfaces).
3. Calibrate the normal contact stiffness model by full cross- 2. Experimental tests
section axial stiffness testing.
4. Calibrate the friction model by measured friction 2.1. General
coefficients.
5. Present SN data from full cross-section tension–tension The specimens used in this work were taken from a 95 mm2
tests. copper power conductor (ETP copper), designated by the UNS
6. Perform FE stress analyses, include the stress concentration C11000 series. The definition of ETP copper is related to copper al-
factors (SCFs) obtained from measured geometric irregular- loy purity of at least 99.95% and characterised by a very high elec-
ities obtained [15,16] and estimate the actual longitudinal trical conductivity and ductility. The conductor cross section
118 F.P. Nasution et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 114–128
consisted of 19 wires, each with a nominal diameter of 2.5 mm. A was more severe for the outer layer, as noted for the individual
centre wire is followed by 6 and 12 helically wound wires in two wires fatigue data reported in [15,16]. The detailed listing of the
layers. The pitch lengths were measured to be 220 mm for both tension–tension test results is found in Table 1.
layers. When using the right hand lay rule the obtained lay angles Fig. 8 displays the full cross-section fatigue data in tension–ten-
were 4.1° and +7.3° for the inner and outer, respectively. The sion mode compared to the individual outer wires fatigue data
modulus of elasticity (E) for copper is 115 GPa [12]. based on the nominal stress ranges Dr. Noting that the black line
shows average of fatigue data taken from individual outer wires in
2.2. Previous fatigue tests tension–tension mode. The upper and lower bounds of the SN
curve are based on nominal stress range with the plus/minus
As previously reported elsewhere [15,16], SN curves based on two standard deviations scatter band.
nominal stress range (Dr) and actual longitudinal stress range The results show that by using the same level of longitudinal
(Drxx) have been constructed based on individual outer wires test- stress ranges as the individual wires, the fatigue strength obtained
ing in tension–tension mode. The actual longitudinal stresses (rxx) from full cross-section testing is very close to the fatigue strength
of individual wires were assessed based on the measured SCFs. obtained from individual wire testing in tension–tension mode for
The maximum SCF in the axial direction, SCF(a), occurred at thin- the outer layer.
nest section as the observed irregularities and was calculated as:
rpeak 2.5. Friction tests
SCF ðaÞ ¼ ð1Þ
rnominal
A series of tests on friction performance of copper wire against
where rpeak represents the maximum stress occurring and rnominal is copper wire were conducted. The purpose of these tests was to
the nominal applied axial stress. The mean SCFs based on Eq. (1) investigate the coefficient of friction between the copper wires.
were found to be 1.238 and 1.058, for the outer and inner wires, Several constant normal force conditions were investigated in
respectively. the tests. The tangential and normal loads were monitored through-
The results showed that the fatigue lifes for the outer wires were out the tests and the associated coefficient of friction l calculated.
consistently below the fatigue lifes for the inner layer and centre Small variations were noted between the tests and the coeffi-
wire. All the observed fatigue failures occurred at the thinnest sec- cient of friction was found to be 0.2.
tion. This indicates that in these tests the fatigue failures were gov-
erned by the irregularities resulting from additional bending stresses.
Fatigue bending tests of full cross-section conductors were also 3. Layer contact formulations
conducted. All fatigue failures occurred in the inner layer, in the
section that had been bent over a bellmouth. The observed fatigue 3.1. General
data obtained from full cross-section testing and the stress range
estimated by only considering wire bending showed that the fati- In the present study, the layer contact formulation in terms of
gue strength of the full cross-section conductors was significantly copper wire interaction between adjacent or within layers are split
lower than the fatigue strength found for individual wires. This
may be explained by the fatigue strength being governed by local-
ised bending and friction effects between layers, which is the main
topic of this work.
Six specimens with free span length 1000 mm and cross section
area 95 mm2 were subjected to nominal stress ranges (Dr) of
160 MPa and 190 MPa with stress ratio, R = 0.1. All the specimens were
terminated at the ends using standard sockets filled with high strength
epoxy resin. The intention of the tests was to provide full scale bench-
mark data on fatigue performance in tension–tension mode.
The tension–tension fatigue testing was carried out in a stan-
dard two-column servohydraulic test machine with hydraulic
clamp at both ends (Fig. 6). The loading was sinusoidal with fre-
quency 2 Hz, in load control.
All the fatigue failures consistently developed at the outer layer
in the thinnest section of the wire (at point contact area), as shown
in Fig. 7. This complies with the observation that the irregularities
resulting from plastic deformation from the compacting process Fig. 6. Standard fatigue test rig of a full cross-section by mounting the both ends.
F.P. Nasution et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 114–128 119
Fig. 9. Inline contact between two wires within a layer and between inner and
central wires by introducing total equivalent width beq.
into two distinct conditions based on the area of contact. The con-
dition includes inline contact governing the contact between wires
within layers and between inner layer and centre wire. The second
condition is point contact between outer and inner layers.
The Hertzian contact theory governs when the contact zone is
limited compared to the surrounding material volume (elastic
range and small strains). In the present case, the contact condition
between wires (inline and point contact) have developed from the
Fig. 7. A failed full cross-section copper power conductor at outer layer in tension–
manufacturing processes with associated large plastic deformation
tension mode.
between wires.
Table 1
Fatigue test data for full cross-section due to tension–tension loads.
No Dr MPa No. cycles to failures [cycles] Irregularities [mm] Failure position (Layer)
1 160 776,070 0.24 Outer
2 160 797,203 0.235 Outer
3 160 898,909 0.20 Outer
4 190 308,412 0.165 Outer
5 190 409,001 0.125 Outer
6 190 421,446 0.115 Outer
Fig. 8. SN fatigue data for full cross-section compared to nominal SN curve based on individual wires testing in tension–tension mode.
120 F.P. Nasution et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 114–128
Fig. 10. Contact geometry area between inner and outer layer.
Ebeq
finline ¼ C in dn ð2Þ
R
where Cin is a calibration factor for inline contact and dn denotes the
A
normal contact displacement. By substituting R = 2r and beq = 2r , Eq.
(2) can be rearranged as
EA
finline ¼ C in dn
4r2 ð3Þ
EA
Fig. 11. Stick–slip displacement on the wire interfaces. (a) Curvilinear beam kinline ¼ C in 2
deformations. (b) Stick–slip displacement quantities between helix wire and centre. 4r
EAc
kpoint ¼ C po ð6Þ
2r
where Cpo is a calibration factor for point contact.
where it has been assumed that each interface carries equal load,
i.e., shared among n interfaces.
The upper term represents the free displacement which
Fig. 12. Complete 3D model of full cross-section power copper conductor. approaches zero when the shear interaction stiffness approaches
122 F.P. Nasution et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 114–128
3R2 F point l
Dpoint ¼
2
ð14Þ
1
F tol
1 Lp EA sin a
4.1. General
Fig. 16. Comparison results of axial force vs. strain obtained from calibration tests, FE and theoretical model.
F.P. Nasution et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 114–128 123
Table 2
Detailed contact parameters of full cross-section copper conductor.
Interface Contact forces Nominal stiffness per interface Stick–slip per interface (Eq. (7)) Slip parameters [mm] (Eqs. (13) and (14))
2 2
Centre-inner layer 0.65 N/mm 200 N/mm 1411.5 N/mm 9.21 105
Inner layer–inner layer 0.65 N/mm 200 N/mm2 1411.5 N/mm2 9.21 105
Outer layer–outer layer 1.8 N/mm 200 N/mm2 1411.5 N/mm2 2.55 104
Outer layer–inner layer 12 N 930 N/mm 2.16 104 N/mm 1.11 104
Fig. 19. Axial force distributions of individual wires from different layer due to
Fig. 17. Point contact distribution between outer and inner layers due to tensile tensile load 9500 N.
load 9500 N.
Fig. 18. Inline contact distribution due to tensile load 9500 N (Red line is hidden
behind the blue line). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure
legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 23. Longitudinal stresses for outer layer in tension–tension mode. (a)
Dr = 160 MPa; (b) Dr = 190 MPa.
2.5 mm, resulting in SCFby equal to 0.92 and 0.96 for the outer
and inner wires, respectively. For the SCF in bending about strong
axis, SCF(bz), was taken to be 1.0 because it will not be important
for the maximum stress.
Fig. 22. Predicted fatigue damage distribution of full cross-section conductor model
by Dr = 190 MPa. (a) Outer layer; (b) Inner layer.
4.2. Tension–tension model
where the average treduced was found to be 0.21 and 0.1 mm for out- The principal model of full cross-section copper conductor ex-
er and inner wires [15,16], respectively. Dnominal was taken to be posed to the tension–tension loads with stress ratio, R = 0.1 is
F.P. Nasution et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 114–128 125
Fig. 25. Axial force histories acting at end beams due to reversed bending loads.
Fig. 27. Predicted fatigue damage distribution of copper conductor model due to
reversed bending motion with radius of curvature q1 = 1500 mm. (a) Inner layer;
(b) Outer layer.
5. FE results
5.1. Calibration
Fig. 26. Actual longitudinal stresses vs. curvature hysteresis loops due to reversed
Fig. 16 shows the correlation results obtained from the proce-
bending motions at the location of maximum fatigue stress. (a) q1 = 1500 mm; (b)
q2 = 3000 mm. dure described in Section 3. The results show good agreement be-
tween the calibration test, FE and theoretical results. Similar
correlation was also obtained by Papailiou [10]. The obtained con-
shown in Fig. 14. The applied nominal stress ranges, Dr, were 160
tact calibration factors for inline (Cin) and point contact (Cpo) were
and 190 MPa, for the fatigue load cases in accordance with the test
2.2 106 and 2.1 102, respectively. The associated stick–slip
procedure.
parameters are given in Table 2.
The point contact force distribution due to maximum tensile
4.3. Tension–bending model load 9500 N is shown in Fig. 17. The point contact forces show that
the quantities are nearly similar over the model length unless close
FE analyses were also carried out for the full cross-section con- to the end fittings, the average point contact forces indicating
ductor model subjected to reversed bending loads over the 12 N.
126 F.P. Nasution et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 114–128
Fig. 28. Predicted fatigue damage distribution of copper conductor model due to
reversed bending motion with radius of curvature q2 = 3000 mm. (a) Inner layer; (b)
Outer layer.
Fig. 30. Comparison between the predicted fatigue life using individual wires SN data and full cross-section fatigue testing in tensiontension mode. The individual wires SN
curve is based on the actual longitudinal stresses.
Fig. 31. Comparison between the predicted fatigue life using individual wires SN data and full cross-section fatigue testing in tensionbending mode. The individual wires SN
curve is based on the actual longitudinal stresses.
Fig. 26 presents the longitudinal stresses vs. curvature hystere- fatigue lifes are 1.88 106 and 5.0 106 cycles for the inner and
sis loops during the reversed bending motion. The hysteresis loops outer layers, respectively.
corresponds to the frictional energy dissipated at the contact inter- A mesh sensitivity check was performed using 800 elements.
faces. The results exhibit that frictional energy dissipated in the Fig. 29 presents the hysteresis loops of actual longitudinal stresses
cyclic bending regime is larger for radius of curvature vs. curvature in the inner layer comparing to different number of
q1 = 1500 mm than q2 = 3000 mm. The larger energy dissipated, elements. For radius of curvature q1 = 1500 mm and
the larger longitudinal stress range. Therefore, the accumulated en- q2 = 3000 mm, the longitudinal stress ranges converged to 241
ergy dissipated at the contact wire surfaces play an important role and 191 MPa, respectively.
in assessing fatigue damage of copper power conductors. The ac-
tual longitudinal stress ranges (Drxx) are 241 and 191 MPa for ra-
dius of curvature q1 = 1500 and q2 = 3000 mm, respectively, as 6. Discussion of FE analyses and test results
compared to 190 MPa and 95 MPa only considering pure bending.
The predicted fatigue damage distribution results for different FE analyses of a full cross-section copper power conductor ex-
layers are displayed in Fig. 27 for radius of curvature 1500 mm. posed to tension–tension and tension–bending loads have been
The results show that the predicted first fatigue failure occurred carried out including mesh sensitivity checks.
at inner layer within the bellmouth. This is in accordance with The predicted first fatigue failure of copper conductor model in
the observed fatigue failures seen in the tests [16]. The predicted tension–tension fatigue mode is located at outer layer as shown in
number of cycles to failure are 2.33 105 and 4.0 105 cycles Figs. 21 and 22. This is in accordance with the observed fatigue fail-
for inner and outer layers, respectively. ure as shown in Fig. 7. It indicates that the fatigue failures were
For radius of curvature of 3000 mm, the predicted fatigue dam- governed by the local bending effects due to surface irregularities
age distribution is shown in Fig. 28, the predicted first fatigue fail- on the wires where the most severe irregularities were found in
ure located at inner layer inside the bellmouth. The estimated the outer layer [16].
128 F.P. Nasution et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 114–128
In Fig. 30, the fatigue data of full copper cross-section in ten- 4. For the tension–bending mode, all the predicted fatigue
sion–tension mode is compared to the SN fatigue data of individual failures invariably occurred at inner layer inside the bell-
outer wires in tension–tension mode based on the actual longitu- mouth. This is in accordance with the observed fatigue fail-
dinal stress range. The predicted number of cycles to failure show ures in the fatigue bending tests. This indicates that the
good correlation with the fatigue life data based on the actual lon- effect of friction between outer and inner layers at the
gitudinal stresses. All the fatigue life results are within the fatigue point contact area plays an important role in assessing
scatter band. the fatigue life of full cross-section copper conductors.
Moreover, the predicted first fatigue failure due to reversed 5. As long as the longitudinal stresses governs the fatigue per-
bending motions took place at inner layer within the bellmouth. formance FE analysis with beam elements can be used to
This is in accordance with the observed fatigue failures from the predict realistic fatigue lifes.
testing. This indicates that the fatigue bending failures are caused
by friction and localised bending at the point contact between out- Work is on-going in terms of FE analyses and experimental
er and inner layers. The friction effect created enlarged longitudi- works for studying the fatigue strength of a 300 mm2 copper
nal stresses at the point contact section as shown in Fig. 26. The power conductor subjected to tension–bending mode and individ-
fact that friction forces will be largest in the inner layer has also ual wires tested in tension–tension mode applying similar
been noted previously by Papailiou [10] and Hong et al. [11]. methodologies.
The comparison between predicted fatigue life and fatigue life
data in tension–bending mode are presented in Fig. 31, noting that Acknowledgement
the stress values used to present the test data only include the ana-
lytical bending term. The test data are seen to be within the scatter The authors acknowledge ABB, Karlskrona, Sweden for provid-
band of the predicted fatigue lifes using FE analysis and individual ing test materials applied in the test.
wires fatigue data.
References
7. Conclusions and future works
[1] Mindlin RD. Compliance of elastic bodies in contact. J Appl Mech
1949;71:259–68.
2
Fatigue strength investigations of a 95 mm copper power con- [2] Dong RG, Steidel Jr FR. Contact stress in stranded cable. Exp Mech
ductor by FE analyses have been conducted in tension–tension and 1965;5(5):142–7.
[3] Hobbs RE, Raoof M. Interwire slippage and fatigue prediction in stranded
tension–bending modes. FE models were established based on cables for TLP tethers. In: Chryssostomidis C, Connor JJ, editors. Proceedings of
beam and beam contact elements, where a simplified contact mod- third international conference on behaviour of offshore structures, Boston, vol.
elling procedure was adopted. The FE model was calibrated by ax- 2; 1982. p. 77–99.
[4] Johnson KL. Contact mechanics. Cambridge University Press; 1985.
ial stiffness testing and validated by mesh sensitivity checks.
[5] Raoof M, Hobbs RE. Analysis of multilayered structural strands. J Eng Mech
Relevant friction coefficients were obtained by testing. Two alter- 1988;114:1166–82.
native full cross-section fatigue tests of a 95 mm2 copper power [6] Raoof M. Axial fatigue of multilayered strands. J Eng Mech 1989;116:2083–99.
conductor were conducted in tension–tension and tension–bend- [7] Raoof M. Axial fatigue life prediction of structural cables from first principles.
Proc Inst Civil Eng 1991;91:19–38.
ing modes, a total of twelve conductor specimens were tested [8] Raoof M, Huang Yu Ping. Cyclic bending characteristics of sheathed spiral
and the results were compared to FE analysis and applying SN fa- strands in deep water. Int J Offshore Polar Eng 1993;3:189–96.
tigue data obtained from individual wires tests. Several conclu- [9] Zhou ZR, Cardou A, Fiset M, Goudreau S. Fretting fatigue in electrical
transmission lines.. Wear 1994;173:179–88.
sions can be drawn in this paper in terms of fatigue performance [10] Papailiou KO. On the bending stiffness of transmission line conductors. IEEE
of copper power conductors. Trans Power Deliv 1997;12.
[11] Hong K-J, Der Kiureghian A, Sackman JL. Bending behavior of helically
wrapped cables. J Eng Mech 2005;131.
1. In order to perform accurately FE analysis calibration tests [12] Karlsen S. 2010. Fatigue of copper conductors for dynamic subsea power
are required to capture realistic load sharing between lay- cables. In: Proceedings of the OMAE 2010 29th international conference on
ers and in assessing the fatigue life. ocean, offshore and arctic engineering, Shanghai, China.
[13] L évesque F, Goudreau S, Cloutier L. Elastic–plastic microcontact model for
2. For the tension–tension mode, all the predicted first fatigue elliptical contact areas and its application to a treillis point in overhead
failures were initiated at the outer layer. The obtained electrical conductors. J Tribol 2011;133.
actual longitudinal stresses from full cross-section model [14] Nasution FP, Sævik S, Gjøsteen JKØ. Fatigue analysis of copper conductor for
offshore wind turbines by experimental and FE method. Energy Procedia. In:
are close to the actual longitudinal stresses of individual
Proceedings of 9th deep sea offshore wind R&D, Trondheim; 2012.
wires. [15] Nasution FP, Sævik S, Gjøsteen JKØ. Study of fatigue strength of copper
3. For the tension–tension test of full cross-section copper conductor considering irregularities surfaces by experimental testing and FE-
conductors, all the first fatigue failures were initiated at analysis. In: The ASME 2012 31st international conference on ocean, offshore
and arctic engineering, Rio de Janeiro; 2012.
outer layer in the thinnest section. This indicates that the [16] Nasution FP, Sævik S, Gjøsteen JKØ, Berge S. Experimental and finite element
fatigue failures were governed by the local stress concen- analysis of fatigue performance for copper power conductor. Int J Fatigue
tration factors (SCFs) due to the effect of surface irregular- 2013;47:244–58.
[17] Sævik S. Theoretical and experimental studies of stresses in flexible pipes.
ities in the outer wires. Good correlation between tests and Comput Struct 2011;89:2272–91.
FE analysis was obtained. [18] Sævik S. On stresses and fatigue in flexible pipes. Ph.D thesis at Department of
Marine Structures. NTNU, Norway; 1992.
[19] UFLEX3D version 1.0.1 theory and user manual.