20.500.12556/RUL-171260 Critical factors affecting the strength of climbing ropes a study of wear, fatigue loading and temperature Climbing ropes are critical safety equipment, yet there is little data on how various stress factors affect their load-bearing capacity over time. This study investigates the individual and combined effects of wear, cyclic loading and elevated temperature on the quasi-static strength of dynamic 9.8 mm kernmantle ropes. Wear was introduced through a reproducible mechanical abrasion process; dynamic fatigue was simulated with 300 cyclic tensile loads of 15 kN; and temperature effects were investigated by exposing the ropes to 100 °C for up to 8 h. The results revealed that: i) severe sheath wear led to an average reduction in rope strength of 16.7 %, with the sheath losing 56.8 % and the core 1.8 % of its strength; ii) an 8-hour heat load at 100 °C reduced the load-bearing capacity of the rope by an average of 24.3 %, with the sheath losing 22.3 % and the core 14 % of its strength; iii) surprisingly, cyclic fatigue loading improved the static load-bearing capacity by an average of 5.5 %, possibly due to an internal rearrangement of the rope strands enhancing structural support; iv) the combined effect of wear and temperature was less than additive: maximum wear plus 8 h of heat exposure reduced the strength to 73.9 % of the original value, compared to the predicted combined decrease of 59 % if the effects were additive. These results provide critical insights into rope degradation mechanisms and demonstrate that combined stress factors interact in complex, non-linear ways. climbing ropes wear dynamic loading temperature tensile strength ageing degradation fatigue polyamide 6 true false true Angleški jezik Ni določen Članek v reviji 2025-08-21 11:46:49 2025-08-21 11:46:56 2025-08-22 04:12:50 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 16 str. Vol. 27, art. 106471 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno apc 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 539.412:620.178.3 2590-1230 10.1016/j.rineng.2025.106471 246191107 Oman_Critical_factors.pdf Oman_Critical_factors.pdf 1 C8D686284B0188025C1DF2C10CB1D2B2 be7dba7b0f05d4aae35310c041e48a71cf8696078baad63124e1ed6f00cecdbf fc81d6f7-7e73-11f0-9328-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=214461 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259012302502540X 1 ac50a5fb-7e73-11f0-9328-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=214460 Fakulteta za strojništvo 0 0 0