Digital Repository, Youth Symposium on Experimental Solid Mechanics

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Synthetic ropes jackets made of polyester and high modulus polyethylene (HMPE): comparison of abrasion wearing behavior.
M. A. Pereira, F. E. G. Chimisso

Last modified: 2010-09-06

Abstract


The application of synthetic ropes has been foreseen, each time more, in projects of oil exploration and production platforms in deep waters. The preference given to this kind of rope is because of its characteristics as excellent flexibility and handling quality, and low linear weight. Even though the jacket does not contribute in the ropes mechanical analysis, it keeps their subropes together and protects them from eventual deteriorations. So, a detailed study of their behavior becomes extremely important. The purpose of this work consists in determine the wear behavior of two kind of synthetic materials to be used like cover jackets and to compare with these materials new and degraded. The specimens, gently supplied to our laboratory by DSM–Holland, consist of two ropes, both with the same internal architecture of High Modulus Polyethylene (HMPE) fibers. One rope was made with polyester jacket and the other one with HMPE jacket. Both jackets were made similarly with the same architecture. The wearing tests were performed for both material specimens, first in tension plus bending and after in tension submerged in tap water. With the results obtained it is easy to see the different performance of the polyester jacket when compared with the performance of the HPME jacket.