Ostoja-Starzewski features work on mechanics of helically wound cables

1/10/2019

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Martin Ostoja-Starzewski
Martin Ostoja-Starzewski
Professor Martin Ostoja-Starzewski’s research was recently highlighted in Advances in Engineering, an online publication that features the latest scientific discoveries across all engineering fields.

Ostoja-Starzewski’s featured work, “Three-dimensional vibrations of a helically wound cable modeled as a Timoshenko rod,” is a paper co-authored by Dansong Zhang, one of his doctoral students, and Loic Le Marrec from the University of Rennes.

“Generally, helically wound cables are made up of a straight core that is surrounded by multiple layers of helical wires. These type of systems are mainly used in overhead power transmission lines, as hoist ropes or as cables in cable stayed and suspended bridges. Analysis of this cable system is crucial as it enables one to obtain effective stiffness of the cable under conditions of tension, bending and torsion. The semi-continuous model type where each layer of the helical wire is treated as a transversely isotropic continuum has been widely employed for such analysis. Unfortunately, this technique has an underlying drawback in that it becomes quite cumbersome to get the effective elastic moduli when the discrete wires are treated as a continuum and incorporating intrinsic interface conditions into the model. Alternative continuum theories have been developed, specifically for the fiber-reinforced material, but are yet to be incorporated in the analysis for simultaneous tension, torsion and bending of helically wound cables,” stated the website’s feature. Read more about this research >>

Ostoja-Starzewski joined MechSE in 2006. He earned his PhD in mechanical engineering from McGill University in Canada in 1983. His research interests are primarily in thermo-mechanics of random and fractal media, advanced continuum theories, and aerospace, bio- and geo-physical applications.


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This story was published January 10, 2019.