Modeling Wire Rope Used in Cable Barrier Systems

An improved LS-DYNA® model of 19-mm diameter 3x7 wire rope commonly used in roadside cable guardrail installations has been developed. A Belytschko-Schwer beam element was selected along with material *MAT_MOMENT_CURVATURE_BEAM. Based on physical testing, total axial load vs. true strain and bending moment vs. curvature were generated for use in the model. Since wire rope displays internal damping due to friction of strands and wires, damping was incorporated into the model using the LS-DYNA command *DAMPING_FREQUENCY_RANGE to damp low-frequency bending oscillations. The proposed model was implemented to simulate a dynamic bending test; results compared favorably.