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During actual operation, a steel wire rope is deformed due to stress interaction between its internal steel wires. In this article a finite element approach is employed to simulate the interaction of steel wire under practical working conditions. In addition, according to the amount of fatigue broken wire under experimental conditions, corresponding parameters are put forward to estimate the service life of steel rope. In this article, the effect of various conditions on service life of steel wire rope is analyzed, and approaches are put forward to improve its service life. The results show that the total stress in straight strand is larger than side strand stress, while the stress increases from inside to outside while increasing from inside to outside. The bigger the pulley diameter, the more steel wire breaks inside the wire rope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work examines the performance of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened using bonded steel wire rope (SWR) at various prestressing levels. The strengthening approach has, however, been applied to the flexural strengthening of RC T-beams in the negative moment region, in order to determine its advantages. For this purpose, four RC T-beams were fabricated and tested under monotonic four-point bending: one control beam (S00), one beam strengthened with non-prestressed SWR (S20), and two beams strengthened with SWR (prestressed at 10% and 20% of their ultimate tensile strength: S21 and S22). The results indicate that the strengthened beams exhibit higher load-carrying capacities. Specifically, the cracking load, yield load, and ultimate load of S20, S21, and S22 increase by 10%–30%, 30%–50%, and 50%–90%, respectively, compared to S00. Additionally, there is an improvement in stiffness and energy absorption capacity. However, these strategies may have a dual effect on the specimens, resulting in a reduction in their ductility index. Finally, the tested beams were replicated using a three-dimensional finite element model, which has proved effective in predicting the behavior of such structures and, therefore, was found to be appropriate for use in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study identifies cyclic stresses as the primary cause of steel wire rope failure, resulting in fatigue failure characterized by a smooth surface with beach marks. Fatigue cracks initiate on the surface and propagate perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, with a martensitic phase observed on the wire surface indicating the formation of a hard surface layer. Repeated twisting and contact with groove flanges and sheaves during hoist operation exacerbate fatigue failure, leading to surface fractures. Understanding these mechanisms is essential for preventing similar issues, suggesting the implementation of measures like improved maintenance practices or design modifications to mitigate cyclic stress effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper designs a device that uses the difference signal of a double-layer sensor to detect steel wire rope damage, which to a certain extent suppresses the impact of the change in lifting distance on defect detection during the signal collection process. First, a simulation model was established to conduct simulation experiments, which verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the method. Secondly, a filtering algorithm using a combination of successive variational mode decomposition (SVMD) and wavelet noise reduction was proposed to analyze the collected wire rope damage signals deal with. The processed one-dimensional magnetic flux leakage signals are converted into leakage magnetic image signals, which are then used as inputs to a classification network. Finally, the improved ResNet network was used to classify and identify the damage signal. The classification accuracy of the signal collected by the single-layer sensor was 90.90%, and the classification accuracy of the signal collected by the double-layer sensor was 94.05%. The device designed in this study demonstrates a 3.15% improvement in defect classification accuracy, confirming the feasibility and superiority of using difference signals for defect detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steel wire ropes are among the essential technical elements widely used in many industries. The impeccable condition of these elements has a major impact on the safety of entire facilities where they are applied, be it construction, mining, agriculture, transport, engineering or another area. This article focuses on comparing two non-destructive methods designed to study the internal defects of steel wire ropes. They are defectoscopes with different principles of operation, namely the MID-3 magnetic defectoscope with both excitation and detection of the magnetic field by means of induction coils, and the REMA defectoscope with Hall sensors. Four reference samples of steel wire ropes used in underground mines with well-defined defects corresponding to damage due to fatigue of the wire rope material were created for the study. Based on the experiments performed, it was confirmed that defectoscopes working on the principle of Hall sensors can detect metal cross section loss adequately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a load-bearing tool, steel wire rope plays an important role in industrial production. Therefore, diagnosing the fracture and damage of steel wire ropes is of great significance for ensuring their safe operation. However, the detection and identification of wire rope breakage damage mainly focus on identifying external damage characteristics, while research on inspecting internal breakage damage is still relatively limited. To address the challenge, an intelligent detecting method is proposed in this paper for diagnosing internal wire breakage damage, and it introduces residual modules to enhance the network's feature extraction ability. Firstly, time–frequency analysis techniques are used to convert the extracted one-dimensional magnetic flux leakage (MFL) signal into a two-dimensional time–frequency map. Secondly, the focus of this article is on constructing a residual network to identify the internal damage accurately with the features of the time–frequency map of the MFL signal being automatically extracted. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method in identifying broken wires is verified through comparative experiments on detecting broken wires in steel wire ropes. Three common recognition methods, the backpropagation (BP) neural network, the support vector machine (SVM), and the convolutional neural network (CNN), are used as comparisons. The experimental results show that the residual network recognition method can effectively identify internal and external wire breakage faults in steel wire ropes, which is of great significance for achieving quantitative detection of steel wire ropes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steel wire rope usually works in harsh environments, making it prone to damage during frequent use. Magnetic flux leakage testing is an important way of non-destructive testing, preventing some major accidents of hoist equipment by identifying the damage to steel wire ropes. Whereas, the harsh environment usually generates noise and results in difficulty in extracting the damage features of the magnetic flux leakage signal, which makes it hard to identify the damage. The fast Walsh-Hadamard transform is widely used in signal processing. The denoising effect depends closely on the transform coefficients. If the transformation coefficients can be adaptively retained, better denoising effects can be achieved. Therefore, we propose the adaptive fast Walsh-Hadamard transform to extract the magnetic flux leakage signal of steel wire rope under noise background. Using the cross-correlation co efficient and the similarity of the greyscale histogram as the indexes, the Fast Walsh-Hadamard transform combines the adaptive particle swarm optimisation to adaptively retain the optimal transformation coefficient and then gets the optimal denoising signal. Meanwhile, compared to wavelet denoising methods, the adaptive fast Walsh-Hadamard transform can effectively improve denoising performance in peak-to-peak reductivity and can be successfully used in steel wire rope damage extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wear and wire fracture are the most common damage and failure modes of steel wire ropes (SWRs) under actual working conditions, which can induce the reduction of effective cross-sectional area and bearing capacity, and seriously affect the service lifespan of SWRs. Therefore, there is a risk of serious accidents and huge economic losses if the damage of the SWR in operation is not detected in time. Magnetic flaw signals of the SWRs can demonstrate its irreversible damage, and the damage evolution is manifested in complex and irregular fluctuations of the signals. In this article, the fatigue damage process of mine hoisting SWRs was simulated and damage signals were collected by non-destructive flaw detector. To evaluate fatigue damage of SWRs effectively, first, this study analyzed the spectrum features of damage signals based on the fast Fourier transform (FFT). In addition, it adopted a robust signal processing method, i.e., wavelet leaders-based multifractal (WLMF), to combine multifractal analysis with detection of bending fatigue damage of a SWR for the first time. The numerical analysis results show that as the number of bending fatigue cycles grows, the spectrum evolves into multiple peaks, and the amplitude corresponding to the dominant frequency expands. Moreover, the width of multifractal spectrum increases and the value range on the Y-axis of the singular spectrum expands synchronously with the number of fatigue cycles. For the damage parameters, an increase in Δh and a decrease in Δf indicate that the SWRs damage begins to accelerate and spread quickly. The multifractal spectrum parameters and scale function agree well with the geometric structure characteristics of damage signals. The reliability of the damage parameters is verified by counting the distribution and the number of broken wires under different fatigue cycles. Hence, it is a suitable method for fatigue damage detection and can be effectively applied to status monitoring and fault diagnosis of SWRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a load-bearing tool, steel wire rope plays an important role in industrial production. Therefore, diagnosing the fracture and damage of steel wire ropes is of great significance for ensuring their safe operation. However, the detection and identification of wire rope breakage damage mainly focus on identifying external damage characteristics, while research on inspecting internal breakage damage is still relatively limited. To address the challenge, an intelligent detecting method is proposed in this paper for diagnosing internal wire breakage damage, and it introduces residual modules to enhance the network’s feature extraction ability. Firstly, time–frequency analysis techniques are used to convert the extracted one-dimensional magnetic flux leakage (MFL) signal into a two-dimensional time–frequency map. Secondly, the focus of this article is on constructing a residual network to identify the internal damage accurately with the features of the time–frequency map of the MFL signal being automatically extracted. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method in identifying broken wires is verified through comparative experiments on detecting broken wires in steel wire ropes. Three common recognition methods, the backpropagation (BP) neural network, the support vector machine (SVM), and the convolutional neural network (CNN), are used as comparisons. The experimental results show that the residual network recognition method can effectively identify internal and external wire breakage faults in steel wire ropes, which is of great significance for achieving quantitative detection of steel wire ropes.

Different number of broken wires produce different grooves on the surface of steel wire rope. Based on the local structural features of these grooves, a new broken wire identification method is proposed. By comparing the processing effects of various image enhancement methods, a processing method called adaptive histogram equalization is selected to process the broken wire image. Aiming at a large amount of useless information in structural features extracted by HOG algorithm, a encoder-decoder neural network is designed to reduce the dimension of features. In addition, to effectively avoid information loss caused by the output layer of the BP neural network, a joint algorithm of the BP neural network and the support vector machine is proposed. The experimental results show that using image enhancement technology to process broken wire images can effectively improve the recognition rate of broken wires; The structural features extracted by HOG algorithm are more beneficial to the quantitative recognition of broken wires than the texture features extracted by LBP operator; Compared with various dimensionality reduction methods, neural network can retain more effective information; The joint algorithm can improve the recognition rate of broken wire by at least 0.25% on the basis of BP neural network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early identification of micro-defects in ferromagnetic elements such as steel wire ropes significantly impacts structures' in-service reliability and safety. This work investigated the possibility of detecting mechanically introduced discontinuities using different magnetic sensors without magnetization of the tested object with a strong external field. This is called the passive magnetic testing method, and it is becoming increasingly popular. This research used differential sensors (measuring differences in field values at the nanotesla level) and absolute sensors (enabling the measurement of the magnetic field vector module or its components at the microtesla level). Each measurement result obtained from the sensors allowed for detecting discontinuities in the line. The problem to be solved is the quantitative identification of changes in the metallic cross-section of a rope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Mechanical Strength / Jixie Qiangdu is the property of Zhengzhou Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent months have highlighted the progressing energy crisis across Europe in connection with the severe sanctions imposed on the import of hydrocarbons and coal from Russia. This is particularly visible in Poland, where over 40% of electricity is generated from coal, while in individual households it is the primary source of heat. This situation puts the already enigmatic plans of shutting down coal mining in Poland into question. Therefore, work aimed at increasing the extraction capacity of existing shafts while maintaining the highest level of operational safety is still valid. This article concerns the issues of the fatigue life of compacted ropes used as hoist ropes in mine shafts. The discussion regarding the use of these ropes among shaft hoist users has been going on for several years. This paper presents the unique results of compacted rope fatigue tests carried out at the Central Mining Institute in Katowice. In the authors’ view, these results and their interpretation should serve to clarify several important aspects that arouse the interest of users.

The lubrication state of wire rope has an important influence on the working characteristics and fatigue life of wire rope. 6X19 steel wire rope is taken as the research object, and three kinds of steel wire rope without grease lubrication, partially lubrication and fully lubrication are selected. The bending fatigue tests are carried out on the bending fatigue test machine under different tension states, and the fatigue damage states of each specimen in different stages are statistically analyzed and microscopic studied. Under good lubrication condition, between wire rope and pulley rope groove of the oil film to improve the contact state, reduce the friction coefficient between steel wire rope, steel wire surface is not easy to wear and tear scratches, delay the formation and extension of cracks and improve the steel wire rope section stress distribution and reduce the stress concentration phenomenon, make more effective load effect on the number of steel wire. The steel wire in the rope is fully drawn, and the proportion of necked broken wire in the total broken wire is higher than that of the wire rope with poor lubrication condition. For the wire rope with poor lubrication condition, the proportion of flush fracture is high, and the steel wire in the rope is not fully drawn, resulting in wire breakage due to local damage. Under the same lubrication condition, the increase of tension force destroys the lubricating oil film between the wire rope and pulley groove on the one hand, on the other hand, under the action of compressive stress, the lubricating oil in the rope core is not easy to infiltrate into the side of the wire rope and pulley groove, which deteriorates the lubrication state.

Steel wire ropes offer manufacturer-independent safety performance, while the durability performance can be different. To assess the damage status of a wire rope during its service, fail-safe methods are used, so it is necessary to know the progression of the damage to apply them. This paper proposes an analytical method for estimating the fatigue life of steel wire ropes. Using a dimensionless analysis, the characteristic damage curve of each rope category has been suggested, setting the basis of a predictive maintenance procedure extendable to all areas of rope application where bending fatigue is the first discard criterion for rope replacement. Rotary bending fatigue tests are performed on different rope construction specimens, and the evolution of broken wires is monitored. It has been demonstrated that the trend of breakage level is exponential with time, regardless of the type of rope and the stress level imposed.

Research has been undertaken to analyze the possibilities of using the residual magnetic field, as a result of local changes in the electromagnetic properties of the rope material, for identification of steel wire rope technical condition. Under the influence of cyclically changing workloads, due to the effects of magnetomechanics, changes in electromagnetic properties occur both in the wires and in the entire rope. The article presents the use of magnetic sensors to determine the relationship between the number of steel wire rope bends and its magnetic field induction value. This knowledge, referred to as ropes working on real objects, allows us to determine the state of stress prevailing in them as well as their technical condition.

The signal of small defects in steel wire rope is often submerged in wave noise. Therefore, it is difficult to detect small defects in wire rope and easy to miss detection. In order to solve this problem, a steel wire rope defect magnetic flux leakage detection method based on improved complementary ensemble empirical mode decomposition (ICEEMD) is proposed. To avoid the influence of the lubricant or dust on the surface of the wire rope on the detection signal, the electromagnetic detection method is adopted. CEEMD-WTF-WF multi-stage noise reduction method is obtained by combining ICEEMD, wavelet threshold filtering (WTF) and Wiener filtering (WF). The intrinsic mode function (IMF) component is obtained by decomposing the magnetic flux leakage signal of steel wire rope through ICEEMD. The energy ratio, permutation entropy and cross-correlation coefficient of IMF components are calculated. The IMF trend component and IMF stock noise component are extracted. WTF is conducted on the stock noise component to filter the useful IMF component reconstruction signal. WF is applied to the reconstructed signal to remove random noise. The eigenvalues of the de-noised defects are extracted, input and trained by BP neural network. The magnetic flux leakage signals of the steel wire rope defects are identified. The experimental results show that ICEEMD-WTF-WF multi-stage noise reduction method has good noise reduction effect on the magnetic flux leakage signal of steel wire rope. The SNR and kurtosis indexes are better than those of WTF, moving average filter and WF. The BP neural network model based on ICEEMD-WTF-WF takes a short time to detect. The average accuracy rate of small defects reaches 98.13%, which can better meet the requirements of wire rope defect detection.

Steel wire ropes will creep under long-term loading, resulting in the deterioration of tensile structure performance. From the perspective of materials science, the creep of steel ropes can be understood as the degradation of their equivalent elastic modulus over time, and there are currently no methods or formulas to quantify this degradation. The main purpose of this paper is to propose a general formula for calculating the equivalent modulus degradation of wire ropes, which will facilitate the assessment of performance variations in tensile structures during service. In this study, an experiment on the degradation of the equivalent elastic modulus of steel wire ropes under long-term loading was conducted. In the experiment, measurements were taken using two types of small-diameter steel wire ropes at three stress levels, with data collected over 20,000 h. The results showed that the degradation of the equivalent elastic modulus transitions from rapid to gradual over time and can be divided into three periods. A universal calculation formula was proposed to conveniently express this degradation law, derived from viscoelastic theory with specific parameters obtained through data fitting. To extend the formula's applicability to a wider range of diameters and stress levels, ANSYS was utilized to develop refined models of steel wire ropes and the parameters were determined by the experimental results. After comparison, it was observed that the differences between the calculated values of the formula and the simulated values of the model were relatively small for small diameters, verifying the accuracy of the proposed formula. However, for larger diameters, significant differences were observed in the early phase of the second period. Consequently, an additional experiment was conducted on a wire rope with a diameter of 18 mm to verify the feasibility of the formula for large diameters. The results showed that the measured values closely matched the simulated values from the model. Based on the simulated values, a revised formula was proposed for large-diameter ropes. The two proposed calculation formulas can be used to quickly estimate the degradation of the equivalent elastic modulus of steel wire ropes. Numerical results further demonstrated that due to the degradation of the equivalent elastic modulus of wire ropes, the mechanical performance of the structure significantly deteriorates over time, offering a valuable reference for structural health monitoring and tensile structure evaluation. • The creep experiment on small diameter wire ropes was carried out under different stresses at normal temperature. • The equivalent elastic modulus E t was proposed, with a calculation formula derived from viscoelastic theory and data fitting. • Two finite element models were built in ANSYS, and an experiment with larger diameter wire rope revised the E t formula. • Time-dependent performance of a Levy cable dome under degraded equivalent elastic modulus was investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In actual use, a steel wire rope is often stretched and twisted around a groove, increasing the risks of contact fatigue, friction and wear at the rope-groove interface under a long-term service condition. With the consideration of influence factors such as the nonlinear contact and wear between the rope and groove, the tribological performance at the rope-groove interface during a twisting process is analyzed in this study. A winding rope-groove model is first established in order to obtain the contact and sliding solutions at the interface between the rope and groove, which are then used as the load conditions of a simplified local model that is built for wear solution using a modified Archard's wear theory. Based on the finite element simulation software ABAQUS, the ALE adaptive mesh technology and UMESHMOTION subroutine secondary development are adopted to analyze the evolutions of wear topography and contact behavior between the rope and the groove. The results show that the twisting movement of the steel wire rope around the groove causes an interfacial wear between them. The wear scars occur on the outside wire of the steel wire rope and the bottom area of the groove, and the wear scar on the groove is smaller but deeper. A ring-shaped region of stress concentration happens near the edge of wear region. As the wear process proceeds, the depths and dimensions of the wear scars increase, while the contact pressure decreases. The contact performance and wear change dramatically at the beginning of wear process and tend to be stable subsequently. An increment of lay angle of the outside wire aggravates the wear and contact between the steel wire rope and the groove. • A numerical method for cyclic wear between twisting rope and groove is proposed. • The wear scar on the groove is smaller but deeper than that on the steel wire rope. • A ring-shaped region of stress concentration occurs near the edge of wear region. • The wear deteriorates while the contact alleviates with the wear process. • An increase in the lay angle aggravates the wear and contact behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an experimental study on the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with prestressed steel wire ropes-polymer mortar composite (PSWR-PM). The effects of reinforcement ratio of steel wire ropes, strengthening procedures, and unbonded length of the steel wire rope-to-polymer mortar interface were studied with large-scale bending tests on RC beams strengthened by PSWR-PM. The test results showed that the proposed strengthening technique could substantially increase the load carrying capacity of the RC beams. Both strengthening procedures were effective in enhancing the flexural behaviour of the RC beams, and strengthening procedure II could even restrain the debonding failure. The unbonded length of the steel wire rope-to-polymer mortar interface had a minor impact on the ultimate capacity when the anchoring length of the steel wire rope in the polymer mortar was sufficient. Moreover, a theoretical model was proposed to predict the flexural strength of RC beams strengthened with the PSWR-PM technique and the predictions showed good agreement with the experimental results.

This paper describes a new detection method of the surface broken wires of the steel wire rope based on the conducting property of the rope. The surface of the steel wire rope is spiral. This spiral characteristic has influence on the eddy current (EC) response signal of the broken wires. Therefore, an EC differential probe is designed to improve the detection accuracy. First, a finite element analysis (FEA) of detecting the broken wires with the EC differential probe is conducted. When the probe scans above the intact part of the steel wire rope, the distribution of the EC in the rope just under the probe is symmetrical about the axis of the rope. Then the output voltage of the differential probe is almost zero. Accordingly, the output voltage is out of balance when the surface broken wires appear. The simulation results show that the effect of the surface alternating peaks and valleys of the rope on the EC response signal of the broken wires can be eliminated by the proposed EC differential probe. Then an experimental platform is built to carry out the scanning detection of different degrees of the surface broken wires. It can be observed that when the probe moves above the broken wires, the output voltage of the differential probe is significantly larger. Finally, the obtained scanning signal is post processed using the wavelet-based denoising method to improve the signal-to-noise rate. The experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively identify the damage degrees of the surface broken steel wires.

The quantitative identification of broken wires is of great significance to maintain the safety of mechanical systems, such as steel wire ropes. However, in order to achieve high accuracy recognition results, a large number of fault samples are necessary, which is difficult to achieve in practical industrial detection. In this paper, a novel quantitative identification approach, based on generative adversarial nets (GANs) and a convolutional neural network (CNN), is proposed to solve the broken wire recognition problem in situations where real inspections have generated only a small sample of broken wires for analysis. One-dimensional original signals of broken wires are transformed into two-dimensional time-frequency images by continuous wavelet transform (CWT). Next, these time-frequency images are used for quantitative identification of various defects by combing GANs and CNN with limited samples. The main innovation of this paper is that the identification accuracy of broken wires can be improved by generating fault samples through GANs. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves better recognition rates for broken wires compared with the existing detection methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates the low life expectancy of the steel wire rope that might be achieved by using the ISO 4308-Part1:2003 for the calculation of the reeving system of a S/R machine. The problem is illustrated with a case study: Calculation of one S/R machine steel wire rope service life. It is also shown that the application of the DIN 15020-Part1:1974, leads to better results on the steel wire rope service life. In response to increasingly demanding customer requirements for high throughput automatic storage systems, S/R machines and VTDs are being pushed to achieve higher number of cycles per hour. The S/R machines are under the scope of EN 528:2008, which states that the ISO 4308-Part1:2003 must be used to calculate and design the steel wire rope reeving system. This standard has been developed for cranes and it takes in account the lifting appliance mode of operation, through the mechanism classification group. However, even the consideration of the most demanding mechanism classification for the steel wire rope calculations may lead to a low service life of the rope. As stated previously, in this paper a S/R machine case study calculation of a steel wire rope service life is made. The lifting system is designed according to the ISO 4308-Part1:2003 and DIN 15020-Part1:1974, and the service life is calculated and compared with the typical requirements for an automatic storage and retrieval warehouse system. Methods like the one developed by Feyrer, may support the machine designer to increase the steel wire rope life expectancy. This method allows the assessment of the impact on the steel wire rope service life of one given improvement in the reeving system design, enabling the designer to balance improvement with cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of the openings negatively effects on the strength of the beams where they act as a weak point because of the sudden change in the cross-section of the beam, so it becomes necessary to make strengthening for the beams to resist the effect of the openings and improve the strength of the beams, especially if the beams are subjected to repeated loads because of its effect on the strength at the failure. This paper studies the effect of the openings on the beams subjected to repeated loading and determine the extent of the increase in the strength of the beams when strengthened by the NSM technique. The experimental program included casting and testing fifteen RC beams, six of them considered as a control beams (three with strengthening and three without strengthening), and nine of them having circular transverse openings in different locations and strengthened by the NSM technique. Every type of beams is tested under three different types of loads (monotonic, constant repeated load, and incremental repeated load). All of the beams have the same dimensions and same reinforcement. The results show that all the beams with transverse openings are affected by repeated loads where the ultimate torque decreases and the twist angle increases. The existence of openings has a noted effect on reducing the ultimate torque, whereas the percentage of decrease in the ultimate torsional capacity reached 43.83% at the beam where the opening location is closest to the support (at the quarter of the clear span) and subjected to constant repeated loads, and the ultimate torque is significantly improved when the opening position is moved away from the supports. Also, the existence of strengthening reduced or eliminated the influence of openings on the ultimate torque compared with related non- strengthened beams.

The detection of broken wires in steel wire ropes is of great significance for the production safety. However, the existing identification techniques mainly focus on the external broken wires problem. Here, the artificial feature extraction is one of the most important method, while only the prior knowledge of the artificial feature extraction method is adequate, the identification precision can be satisfied. Therefore, it is still a challenge to realize intelligent diagnosis for the broken wires. Besides, the identification of internal broken wires problem is still not well solved. In this paper, a quantitative identification method based on continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed to solve the internal and external broken wires identification problem. The key technology of this research is that the fault information from the time-frequency images converted by the magnetic flux leakage (MFL) signals can be automatically extracted through a designed CNN. The main innovation is that the complex signal processing work can be eliminated and the internal and external broken wires can be accurately identified simultaneously by combining CWT and CNN. The experimental results of a steel wire rope test rig are compared with the traditional recognition method, which shows that the proposed method achieved significant improvement on detection accuracy and recognition performance.

The early identification of micro-defects in ferromagnetic elements such as steel wire ropes significantly impacts structures’ in-service reliability and safety. This work investigated the possibility of detecting mechanically introduced discontinuities using different magnetic sensors without magnetization of the tested object with a strong external field. This is called the passive magnetic testing method, and it is becoming increasingly popular. This research used differential sensors (measuring differences in field values at the nanotesla level) and absolute sensors (enabling the measurement of the magnetic field vector module or its components at the microtesla level). Each measurement result obtained from the sensors allowed for detecting discontinuities in the line. The problem to be solved is the quantitative identification of changes in the metallic cross-section of a rope.

As one of the most important processes in steel wire rope inspection, defect signal processing is of great significance in guaranteeing safety and precision measurement. Aiming at the weak signal detection of steel wire rope with mixed strands and noise, a combined signal processing method based on magnetic flux leakage testing and multi-step filtering techniques are proposed in this paper. The experiments are first introduced and performed on three typical types of steel wire rope with diameters of 28 mm, 32 mm, 45 mm, and different wire broken defects detected under liftoff distances of 13 mm and 20 mm; the acquired signals are then analyzed both in time and frequency domain. According to the weak signal characterizations, the principle of the proposed methods and algorithm are given concretely. Afterwards, comparison of signal processing results between the traditional lowpass filtering, wavelet denoising, median filtering, and the proposed method are presented. Finally, the influence factors of smoothing types and moving average span of the proposed methods are investigated. The processing results of the proposed methods are shown through short-time Fourier transform and signal-to-noise ratio analysis, which not only demonstrates the validity and feasibility of the combined methods with the highest signal to noise ratio of 90.37 dB, but also exhibits a great potential of precision defect detection and practical application in steel wire rope inspection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Mine Automation is the property of Industry & Mine Automation Editorial Department and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Tribo-corrosion-fatigue coupling damage greatly affects the service safety of wire rope. A self-made test rig was employed to investigate the influences of fatigue load characteristics (amplitude, stress ratio, maximum) on bending tribo-corrosion-fatigue damage of wire ropes. The tribological properties and electrochemical corrosion of the wire ropes, and the coupling damage and mechanisms were discussed in detail. Results indicate a lower friction coefficient between wire ropes in artificial seawater. The main wear mechanisms in seawater are adhesive wear, fatigue wear, oxidation wear and corrosion wear as compared to abrasive wear, adhesive wear, oxidation wear and fatigue wear in pure water. Lower stress ratios amplify corrosion and adhesive wear. Fatigue fractures are mainly ductile, with stress ratio being a significant factor. Tribo-corrosion-fatigue coupling exacerbates damage in contact ropes compared to fatigue ropes. Seawater increases fatigue rope damage but reduces contact rope damage. Higher fatigue load amplitude and maximum value, and lower stress ratios, increase friction coefficient, deformation, volume loss, wire breakage, and decrease corrosion resistance. These findings provide essential data for assessing wire rope service life under seawater corrosion conditions and ensuring offshore drilling safety. [Display omitted] • The influence of fatigue load on the bending tribo-corrosion-fatigue between steel wire ropes is investigated. • The stress ratio has the greatest effect on the coupling damage (wear, deformation and wire breakage). • Seawater promotes the damage to the fatigue ropes, but inhibits the damage to contact ropes. • The mechanism of tribo-corrosion-fatigue damage is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The strength of reinforced concrete members can be enhanced using externally bonded reinforcement (EBR) and near surface mounted (NSM) methods. However, small number of studies has adopted the NSM method for torsional strengthening. To date, no study has examined the use of spiral NSM steel wire rope and epoxy adhesives for torsional strengthening. Therefore, this study examines the behaviour of RC beams subjected to the combined actions of torsion and bending moment when they are strengthened with spiral NSM steel wire rope (Ø8 mm) in different configurations. For this purpose, six beams of 15 cm × 25 cm × 200 cm were casted. One of these beams was conventional, whereas all the other beams were strengthened with spiral NSM steel wire rope. During the testing process, the twist angle at the torque intervals, first cracking torque, ultimate torque and ultimate twist angle of the conventional beam were compared with those of the strengthened beams. The torsional performance of the RC beams was significantly improved using spiral NSM steel wire rope in various spiral NSM configurations.

The quantitative identification of broken wires is of great significance to maintain the safety of mechanical systems, such as steel wire ropes. However, in order to achieve high accuracy recognition results, a large number of fault samples are necessary, which is difficult to achieve in practical industrial detection. In this paper, a novel quantitative identification approach, based on generative adversarial nets (GANs) and a convolutional neural network (CNN), is proposed to solve the broken wire recognition problem in situations where real inspections have generated only a small sample of broken wires for analysis. One-dimensional original signals of broken wires are transformed into two-dimensional time-frequency images by continuous wavelet transform (CWT). Next, these time-frequency images are used for quantitative identification of various defects by combing GANs and CNN with limited samples. The main innovation of this paper is that the identification accuracy of broken wires can be improved by generating fault samples through GANs. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves better recognition rates for broken wires compared with the existing detection methods.

As one of the most important processes in steel wire rope inspection, defect signal processing is of great significance in guaranteeing safety and precision measurement. Aiming at the weak signal detection of steel wire rope with mixed strands and noise, a combined signal processing method based on magnetic flux leakage testing and multi-step filtering techniques are proposed in this paper. The experiments are first introduced and performed on three typical types of steel wire rope with diameters of 28 mm, 32 mm, 45 mm, and different wire broken defects detected under liftoff distances of 13 mm and 20 mm; the acquired signals are then analyzed both in time and frequency domain. According to the weak signal characterizations, the principle of the proposed methods and algorithm are given concretely. Afterwards, comparison of signal processing results between the traditional lowpass filtering, wavelet denoising, median filtering, and the proposed method are presented. Finally, the influence factors of smoothing types and moving average span of the proposed methods are investigated. The processing results of the proposed methods are shown through short-time Fourier transform and signal-to-noise ratio analysis, which not only demonstrates the validity and feasibility of the combined methods with the highest signal to noise ratio of 90.37 dB, but also exhibits a great potential of precision defect detection and practical application in steel wire rope inspection.

Force measurement on steel wire rope (SWR) is significant to ensure the safety of people and property. Previous methods propose the electro-magnetic sensor, which measures the force applied on the SWR non-invasively and does not damage the structure of the SWR. Based on the magneto-elastic effect and integration of induction voltage as the indicator, electro-magnetic sensors perform well in many situations. However, in practice, the integration of induction voltage method is noise-sensitive, because the noise is easily accumulated by integration in the practical environment. In this case, we propose an improved method based on a novel indicator, maximal induction voltage. The maximal induction voltage method is influenced less by noise, as no integration of noise term is involved, so the maximal induction voltage method has better performance on noise reduction. Moreover, the paper builds a force measurement system by deriving the analytical linear relation between force and maximal induction voltage, and this linear relation can be estimated by prior experimental data. The experimental results show that the proposed method has higher linearity and sensitivity than the integration of induction voltage method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimal selection of wire rope for various industrial applications is a multidisciplinary procedure. In this paper, optimum selection of wire rope for winch trolley in hot rolling shop is comprehensively demonstrated using finite element analysis. Powerfoam wire rope can be operated at lower D/d ratio and have 2.5 times longer service life as compared to their stranded conventional counterpart. The parameter-based geometric models of commercially available multi-layer wire ropes of 1 + 6 + 6 strand construction are designed using modelling software, SolidWorks, and procedure is followed by finite element analysis on ANSYS. The service life of wire rope is a function of factor of safety. Finally, cost analysis is delivered for optimum selection of wire rope, as an economical insight of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the dual physical characteristics of the steel wire and the rubber possessed by the rubber conveyor belt with the steel wire core,the constitutive model of the entire conveyor belt is obtained by combining the constitutive model of the steel wire core and that of the rubber cladding. The Kelvin model is employed to describe the constitutive model of the steel wire,the standard solid model is employed to describe the constitutive model of the rubber cladding,the stress expression of the conveyor belt under the harmonic strain is derived by the parallel superposition combination of a standard solid model and the multiple Kelvin models,and the generalized constitutive model of the conveyor belt is established. The experiments of the dynamic strain loading on the steel wire and the rubber base body are performed respectively,and the parameters for the two constitutive models are obtained,and the prediction of the visco-elastic mechanics characteristics by applying the generalized constitutive model is performed. The experiment of the dynamic strain loading on the conveyor belt is carried out,the comparison between the experimental result and the computational result of the generalized constitutive model is performed. The result shows that by calculating the parameters of the steel wire,the parameters of the rubber cladding and the volume ratio of the steel wire to the rubber cladding,the visco-elastic mechanics characteristics of the conveyor belt can be described precisely,and the accuracy of the generalized constitutive model is high.

The wire ropes in steel material are generally used in harbours, on ships, haulage applications in mine winders, aerial ropeway carrying, haulage/track ropes for transportation of passengers and in many industrial fields. The properties of high axial strength and flexibility in bending, convert wire ropes into imperative load transmission components for many industrial applications. The exhaustive usage of these ropes deteriorates with its use over the course of period. The conduct of wire rope inspection has make one's way expeditiously over the past few decades. To perform nondestructive tests of rope is a way how to analyse the real condition of ropes during their running operation. It became very necessary to evaluate ropes during their live condition in the interest to facilitate substitution of the rope in stipulated period and also for strengthening risk-free duration of working when discard requirements failed to attained. Available magnetic rope flaw detectors are now became much easier to set off and yield a paramount component of steel wire ropes verification or evaluation. The results of tests from these equipment's capable of providing certain appraises of safety concern regarding steel wire rope parameters such as loss of metallic cross-sectional area and localised faults. It also provides further accurate baseline in establishing the state and rest duty period of a wire rope. A conducted research result depicts the level and the wide range of flaws, distribution pattern of localized defects such as concentrated or dispersive broken wires. This technical paper on nondestructive evaluation work being sponsored by Indian industry, illustrates the method of nondestructive testing applied and analysis of condition of haulage and track ropes including safety recommendations for further continuance in service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, mem-springs and mem-dashpots from a newly introduced family of mem-models are used as fundamental building blocks in hysteresis modeling. The usefulness of such assemblies of mem-models is investigated for both simulation and system identification. First, numerical simulations demonstrate the general capability of these models to describe strain ratcheting behaviors. Next, system identification is addressed by extending the concepts of mem-springs to include linear and nonlinear springs and those of mem-dashpots to include linear and nonlinear dashpots. A reconfigurable device made of steel and/or shape memory alloy wires and wire ropes provides a fitting test for the proposed mem-model-based family. A system identification procedure corroborated by physical insights is proposed and the results are validated using physics-based analysis. Multilayer feedforward neural networks are used for static nonlinear function approximation. The model class and system identification procedure proposed here are shown to extract similarities and dissimilarities among different configurations of the device by quantifying the spring and damping effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strength of reinforced concrete members can be enhanced using externally bonded reinforcement (EBR) and near surface mounted (NSM) methods. However, small number of studies has adopted the NSM method for torsional strengthening. To date, no study has examined the use of spiral NSM steel wire rope and epoxy adhesives for torsional strengthening. Therefore, this study examines the behaviour of RC beams subjected to the combined actions of torsion and bending moment when they are strengthened with spiral NSM steel wire rope (Ø8 mm) in different configurations. For this purpose, six beams of 15 cm × 25 cm × 200 cm were casted. One of these beams was conventional, whereas all the other beams were strengthened with spiral NSM steel wire rope. During the testing process, the twist angle at the torque intervals, first cracking torque, ultimate torque and ultimate twist angle of the conventional beam were compared with those of the strengthened beams. The torsional performance of the RC beams was significantly improved using spiral NSM steel wire rope in various spiral NSM configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Some damages in material do not increase the magnetic flux leakage or even decrease it, making it more challenging to identify the individual fault. • Introducing a discontinuity in the form of several independent faults causes a change in the distribution of each component of magnetic induction. • The magnetic state of examined object is influenced by many factors: the depth of the defect, location relative to the sensor, and location relative to other defects. • Individual defects are noticeable when they are not in the zone of the magnetic signal coming from another defect. Early identification of micro defects in steel wire ropes significantly impacts structures' in-service reliability and safety. The self-magnetic flux leakage (SMFL) method is a passive variant of the magnetic flux leakage (MFL) method. The main difference is that the SMFL method relies on the self-magnetization of ferromagnetic material in a geomagnetic field, while the MFL method requires an externally formatted excitation source. Magnetic signal inspection based on the self-magnetic flux leakage (SMFL) effect can effectively identify the location of defects. However, current research on the magnetic signal of defects under the influence of various factors needs to be more comprehensive. However, no paper was found that compared different distances between discontinuities and their magnetic resolutions. This work aims to analyze the resolution of the passive magnetic method on the example of steel wire rope defect tests. The research was conducted with a sensor using the tunnelling magnetoresistance (TMR) phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking 6×36+WS steel wire rope as research object, 3D model of the steel wire rope which was established by SolidWorks software was imported into ABAQUS, and a finite element model of the steel wire rope was established by setting up contact pairs and boundary conditions. Under the same axial load, affection of different friction factors on stress and fatigue life of the steel wire rope was simulated and analyzed. The results show that stress located on steel wire outside strand is large when the steel wire rope in stretch state, and the maximum stress is located on the steel wires where strands contact with each other. With increase of friction factors, stress of the steel wire rope increases and fatigue life decreases gradually, and fatigue life of the steel wire rope with the maximum stress is the minimum.

Tribo-fatigue behaviors of steel wire rope under bending fatigue with the variable tension were presented in this study. A self-made bending fatigue test apparatus of steel wire rope under the variable tension was introduced. Fracture and wear mechanisms of steel wires in the rope were investigated employing the VW-9000E high speed camera. The total wear depth of both contacting wires was calculated in cases of distinct rope segments and different pulley diameters. The finite element method was employed to analyze three-dimensional contact behaviors between the rope and friction pulley in order to validate test results. The results show that the number of broken wires in the rope decreases in the order: the outer layer in the core strand, outer layer in the outer strand, inner layer in the core strand and center wire in the core strand. The tribo-fatigue damage between core and outer strands is larger than that between outer strand and friction pulley. Severe wear in the rope is located at the outer layer wire in the outer strand contacting the friction pulley, at contacting wires between neighboring outer strands, and at contacting wires between core and outer strands. The outer layer wire of core strand contacting with the outer strand presents several consecutive wear scars. The total wear depth of steel wire decreases with increasing pulley diameter and presents the fluctuating change with increasing bending fatigue cycles, which is the same case at various contact regions. Contact and damage locations in finite element analyses coincide well with the test results. • A self-made bending fatigue test apparatus of steel wire rope under the variable tension was introduced. • Fracture and wear mechanisms of steel wires in the rope under bending fatigue with the variable tension were explored. • The mathematical model of total wear depth of contacting wires was established. • Finite element analyses were presented to validate test results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study analyzes the slipping and crushing behaviors of a steel wire rope during a tensile test using a curve-type clamping mechanism to realize safe and reliable clamping during safety testing. Then the dynamic simulation analysis of the clamping and stretching processes is performed using the finite element method. The reasons for the damage caused to the wire rope by clamping force are investigated. The clamping mechanism of the tensile testing machine is improved using a force amplifier and the optimization design of its jaws. The experimental results show that the improved clamping mechanism can effectively clamp the wire rope for tensile testing and meet test requirements. Highlights • Slipping and crushing behaviors of a steel wire rope are analyzed. • Dynamic simulation analysis of clamping and stretching processes is performed. • Clamping mechanism is improved using a force amplifier and jaw optimization. • Improved clamping mechanism exhibits no slipping or crushing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic flux leakage (MFL) method is an important way to detect the fault of steel wire ropes and the sensor for the collection of MFL plays a vital role in the damage detection. Among varied sensors based on MFL method, the magnetic concentrating sensor shows a lot of advantages in the detection of wire ropes. The use of the magnetic concentrator can assist the magnetic sensitive component to detect the MFL and reduce the number of the Hall components. The lift-off of the magnetic concentrating sensor can also be set to a feasible value which is easier to be ensured in the practical application. Although many researches on the magnetic concentrating sensor have been carried out, few of them have a comprehensive and thorough investigation, which should include the simulation analysis, the prototype design, the broken wire experiment and the comparison with other commonly used sensors. In this paper, a magnetic concentrating sensor is developed and compared with a Hall array sensor through both simulation and experiments. Firstly, the three-dimensional models of the magnetic concentrating sensor and the Hall array sensor are designed and their performance on collecting MFL is analyzed through finite element method (FEM). Secondly, the prototypes of the two kinds of sensors are designed according to the simulation results and their corresponding processing circuits are made. Finally, the effectiveness of the two sensors is evaluated by broken wire experiments with different rope diameters. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the magnetic concentrating sensor achieves a higher sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than the Hall array sensor with less Hall components and simpler pre-processing circuit.

The technical state of steel wire ropes has a decisive impact on the safety of people using the equipment in which they are installed. The basis for increasing safety is the ability to assess the condition of the working steel wire. The article presents the use of magnetometric sensors to determine the relationship between the number of steel wire rope bends and its magnetic field induction value. This knowledge, referred to ropes working on real objects, allows to determine the state of stress prevailing in them as well as their condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Strengthening hollow core slab with mounted steel bar and prestressed steel wire rope. • Mounted steel bars can enhance the flexural performance of the slabs. • Prestressed steel wire ropes are more efficient in improving cracking behavior. • Location and amount of the ropes are critical for the slab behavior. • The finite element model is capable of predicting the overall slab response. Abstract Hollow core slabs are widely used in prefabricated buildings either as slab elements or bridge decks because of their economic benefits. However, little attention has been given to developing strengthening techniques that are especially suitable for hollow core slabs to recover or improve the original serviceability and load carrying capacity. In this study, two novel techniques for strengthening hollow core slabs with mounted steel bars and prestressed steel wire ropes (P-SWRs) were proposed. Six slab specimens were tested to failure under a four-point bending configuration, and the strengthening effects of the mounted steel bars and P-SWRs on the hollow core slab performance were studied. The experimental results indicated that the steel bars mounted in the cores were capable of enhancing the flexural performance of the hollow slabs. The prestressing technique and anchorages developed in this paper could be used to feasibly and easily prestress the steel wire ropes. P-SWRs were found to be more efficient in improving cracking load than mounted steel bars because of the prestress in P-SWRs. External P-SWRs were better at improving the cracking load, yield load and precracking stiffness compared with internal P-SWRs. The simultaneous use of both internal and external P-SWRs obtained the highest flexural capacity. A three-dimensional finite element (FE) model was developed incorporating the smeared-crack model for concrete and elastic-linear strain hardening model for steel. The validity of the FE model was verified through comparisons with experimental results. Thus, this study provides both experimental evidence and finite element model for the application of the proposed strengthening techniques for hollow core slabs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of the steel rope is a complex set which characteristic features, functional ability and life are based on the co-ordination of the separate elements from which the rope is made - steel wires. The paper is focused on fatigue testing of steel ropes. After the fatigue tests, the properties of the wire material, rope erasure and wire strength were determined. Steel ropes were subjected to a cyclically tensile and bending test during the test, while the sample is rotated around the axle to ensure a uniform wear on the surface of the rope. For specific steel wire tests, the mechanical tests of wires from the fatigue straps and the positive influence of lubrication on steel ropes were evaluated by the Cpk Index. Lubrication creates an oil film between the wires, which reduces the internal friction between the wires and prevents the formation of premature notches on the wires that are the cause of fatigue wire breaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current research aims to study the effect of static loads on concrete beams strengthened by wire rope. Each beam was subjected to a central concentrated load with an average loading speed of 1 kN/min. The use of steel wire rope has been suggested as a new economical technique to strengthen and rehabilitate reinforced concrete beams, as well as to support the CFRP used in strengthening. The best results were obtained when using either CFRP and wire rope together, or wire rope on its own. It was found that strengthening by CFRP and wire rope increased the flexural strength, hardness, and toughness, and decreased the maximum deflection. Furthermore, the use of wire ropes with CFRP increased the splitting strength and prevented the concrete cover separation between CFRP and concrete. The use of wire rope is a new technique that significantly enhances the performance of concrete in flexure. Using a combination of wire ropes and CFRP, and wire rope on its own showed an increase in stiffness up to about 135.24% and 72.13%, and a reduction in ultimate deflection up to about 70.31% and 49.1%, respectively as compared with control beams. Wire ropes can be used in various forms to resist flexure, shear, and torsion stresses due to ease of formation per required shape. Moreover, increasing the rope's diameter or reducing the spacing between the wrapped rope's segments can enhance its efficiency. This renders strengthening by wire rope a new, efficient, and economic technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stress and fatigue life of 6 × 36 WS wire rope of a special equipment under axial tension and the bending state around the pulley are studied to analyze the stress distribution and fatigue failure of steel wire rope during the working process. A finite element model of the steel wire rope is established, and the stress distribution under the axial tension and the bending state around the pulley are simulated and analyzed. Then the fatigue test of the steel wire is carried out to obtain the fatigue life data. Based on the fatigue data of the steel wire and the finite element analysis results of the rope, the fatigue life simulation analysis of the wire rope is carried out according to Miner linear accumulated damage theory. The results show that the stress of steel wire rope is larger in the contact areas of the adjacent wires and rope strands, and the contact area between wire rope and pulley. The greater the stress is, the shorter the fatigue life is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steel ropes are complex flexible structures used in many technical applications, such as elevators, cable cars, and funicular cabs. Due to the specific design and critical safety requirements, diagnostics of ropes remains an important issue. Broken wire number in the steel ropes is limited by safety standards when they are used in the human lifting and carrying installations. There are some practical issues on loose wires—firstly, it shows end of lifetime of the entire rope, independently of wear, lubrication or wrong winding on the drums or through pulleys; and, secondly, it can stick in the tight pulley—support gaps and cause deterioration of rope structure up to birdcage formations. Normal rope operation should not generate broken wires, so increasing of their number shows a need for rope installation maintenance. This paper presents a methodology of steel rope diagnostics and the results of analysis using multi-criteria analysis methods. The experimental part of the research was performed using an original test bench to detect broken wires on the rope surface by its vibrations. Diagnostics was performed in the range of frequencies from 60 to 560 Hz with a pitch of 50 Hz. The obtained amplitudes of the broken rope wire vibrations, different from the entire rope surface vibration parameters, was the significant outcome. Later analysis of the obtained experimental results revealed the most significant values of the diagnostic parameters. The evaluation of the power of the diagnostics was implemented by using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. Various decision-making methods are necessary due to unknown efficiencies with respect to the physical phenomena of the evaluated processes. The significance of the methods was evaluated using objective methods from the structure of the presented data. Some of these methods were proposed by authors of this paper. Implementation of MCDM in diagnostic data analysis and definition of the diagnostic parameters significance offers meaningful results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]