SIMPLE METHOD FOR DETERMINING BENDING STIFFNESS OF LARGE DIAMETER MULTI-LAYERED SPIRAL STRANDS

The response of a helical strand is difficult to model theoretically, as it involves lengthy mathematical formulations. It is highly desired by the practicing engineers to have a simple and reliable method for the prediction of bending stiffness of multi-layered strands. A method for the estimation of bending stiffness of large diameter multi-layered strands has been proposed in this paper. The development of this method was carried out using significantly large number of parametric studies on a variety of strand construction which were also validated using the experimental data. The proposed method is simple in nature for direct engineering applications which provides an effective tool for calculating effective bending stiffness of a strand subjected to any bending curvature.